Phalanx

//ˈfeɪˌlæŋks// name, noun

Definitions

Proper Noun
  1. 1
    The brand name of a radar-controlled rapid fire 20mm Gatling-type machine gun, the Phalanx CIWS (pronounced see-wiz), deployed on U.S. Navy ships as a last line of defense against antiship cruise missiles.
Noun
  1. 1
    An ancient Greek and Macedonian military unit that consisted of several ranks and files (lines) of soldiers in close array with joined shields and long spears. historical
  2. 2
    any of the bones of the fingers or toes wordnet
  3. 3
    A Fourierite utopian community; a phalanstery. historical

    "[Charles Fourier] calculated that if precisely 1,620 men, women and children were collected in a 6,000-acre phalanx, they would — all by merrily following their individual passions — end up satisfying all the phalanx’s essential needs."

  4. 4
    a body of troops in close array wordnet
  5. 5
    A large group of people, animals or things, compact or closely massed, or tightly knit and united in common purpose.

    "The monarch hath gone, but his rocky throne Still rests on its frowning base; Its motionless guards rise in phalanx lone, And nought save the winds through their helmets that moan, And none but those bosoms and hearts of stone Sigh o'er a fallen race."

Show 3 more definitions
  1. 6
    any closely ranked crowd of people wordnet
  2. 7
    One of the bones of the finger or toe.
  3. 8
    A bundle of stamens, in diadelphous and polyadelphous flowers.

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin phalanx or Ancient Greek φάλαγξ (phálanx, “battle order, array”). Doublet of phalange, planch, plancha, planche, and plank.

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