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ENGLISH · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

rearguard.

The rearmost part of a force, especially a detachment of troops that protect the rear of a retreating force.

9 characters2 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

noun/ˈɹɪəɹˌɡɑɹd/
  1. The rearmost part of a force, especially a detachment of troops that protect the rear of a retreating force.

    attributive · often
  2. The defence, collectively the defenders.

    attributive · often
Where this word comes from

From Middle English rier garde, from Anglo-Norman reregard, reregarde, rereguarde and Middle French rieregarde, from Old French rereguarde (attested in The Song of Roland, c. 1150), from rere (“after; behind”) + guarde (“guard”). By surface analysis, rear + guard. Piecewise doublet of retrogarde.

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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.

Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.