Major

Major is a rank of commissioned officer, with corresponding ranks existing in many military forces.

When used unhyphenated, in conjunction with no other indicator of rank, the term refers to the rank just senior to that of an army captain and just below the rank of lieutenant colonel. It is considered the most junior of the field ranks. In some militaries, notably France, the rank is referred to as commandant, while in others it is known as captain-major. It is also used in some police forces and other paramilitary rank structures, such as the New York State Police, New Jersey State Police and several others. As a police rank, Major roughly corresponds to the UK rank of Superintendent.

When used in hyphenated or combined fashion, the term can also imply seniority at other levels of rank, including general-major or major general, denoting a mid-level general officer, and sergeant major, denoting the most senior NCO of a military unit.

It can also be used with a hyphen to denote the leader of a military band such as in pipe-major or drum-major.

Read more about Major:  Links To Major Ranks By Country, Links To Ranks Equivalent To Major By Country

Famous quotes containing the word major:

    Give me the keys. I feel for the common chord again,
    Sliding by semi-tones till I sink to a minor,—yes,
    And I blunt it into a ninth, and I stand on alien ground,
    Surveying a while the heights I rolled from into the deep;
    Which, hark, I have dared and done, for my resting-place is found,
    The C Major of this life: so, now I will try to sleep.
    Robert Browning (1812–1889)

    In the larger view the major forces of the depression now lie outside of the United States, and our recuperation has been retarded by the unwarranted degree of fear and apprehension created by these outside forces.
    Herbert Hoover (1874–1964)

    What was lost in the European cataclysm was not only the Jewish past—the whole life of a civilization—but also a major share of the Jewish future.... [ellipsis in source] It was not only the intellect of a people in its prime that was excised, but the treasure of a people in its potential.
    Cynthia Ozick (b. 1928)