platoon

English

Etymology

From obsolete French plauton, variant of peloton, from Middle French pelote + -on. Doublet of peloton. Compare pellet.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /pləˈtuːn/

• Audio (Southern England)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -uːn

Noun

platoon (plural platoons)

1. (military) A unit of thirty to forty soldiers typically commanded by a lieutenant and forming part of a company.
   • 1960 March, G. Freeman Allen, “Europe's most luxurious express - the "Settebello"”, in Trains Illustrated, page 140:

     Needless to say, one's seat must be booked in advance and a platoon of urbane officials, one to each door of the train, awaits passengers to usher them to their seats and relieve them of their bulkier baggage.

2. A group of self-driving vehicles travelling in a close convoy and communicating electronically with each other.
3. (education, historical) A group of children in the platoon grouping education system.

Translations

unit of 30-40 soldiers

• Arabic: فَصِيلَة عَسْكَرِيَّة f (faṣīla ʕaskariyya), فَصِيلَة (ar) f (faṣīla)
• Armenian: դասակ (hy) (dasak)
• Azerbaijani: taqım, tağım, vzvod
• Belarusian: узво́д m (uzvód)
• Bengali: পল্টন (bn) (polṭon)
• Bulgarian: взвод m (vzvod)
• Chinese:

  Cantonese: 排 (paai⁴), 分隊／分队 (fan¹ deoi^6-2)

  Mandarin: 排 (zh) (pái), 分隊／分队 (zh) (fēnduì)

• Czech: četa (cs) f
• Danish: deling (da) c
• Esperanto: plotono
• Estonian: rühm (et)
• Finnish: joukkue (fi)
• French: peloton (fr) m
• German: Zug (de) m, Kolonne (de) f, Sanitätszug m (medical)
• Hebrew: מַחְלָקָה f (makhlaká)
• Hungarian: szakasz (hu)
• Ido: pelotono (io)
• Indonesian: peleton (id)
• Irish: buíon m or f
• Italian: plotone (it)
• Japanese: 小隊 (ja) (しょうたい, shōtai)
• Kazakh: взвод (vzvod)
• Khmer: កងអនុសេនាតូច (kɑɑng ʼaʼnuʼ seenaa touc)
• Korean: 소대(小隊) (ko) (sodae)
• Kyrgyz: взвод (ky) (vzvod)
• Latvian: vads m
• Lithuanian: būrys m
• Macedonian: вод m (vod), чета f (četa)
• Malay: platun
• Maori: parahūnu, wāhanga toru o te kamupene, paratunu
• Polish: pluton (pl) m
• Portuguese: pelotão (pt)
• Romanian: pluton (ro) n
• Russian: взвод (ru) m (vzvod)
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: во̑д m

  Roman: vȏd (sh) m

• Slovak: čata f
• Slovene: vod m
• Spanish: pelotón (es)
• Swedish: pluton (sv) c
• Tajik: таҳм (tahm)
• Turkish: takım (tr)
• Ukrainian: чота́ f (čotá), взвод m (vzvod)
• Uzbek: vzvod (uz)
• Vietnamese: trung đội (vi), tiểu đội (vi)

Verb

platoon (third-person singular simple present platoons, present participle platooning, simple past and past participle platooned)

1. (baseball) To alternate starts with a teammate of opposite handedness, depending on the handedness of the opposing pitcher

   Taylor has been hitting poorly against left-handers, and Morgan has been hitting poorly against right-handers, so they will platoon.

2. (sports) To specialize in a particular position or playing style.
   • 2014, The Cedar Rapids Gazette, Greatest Moments in Iowa Hawkeyes Football History:

     You must understand the rules of football in 1939. There was no platooning, so each man played both offense and defense.

3. Of self-driving vehicles: to travel in a close convoy, each vehicle communicating electronically with the others.

See also

• platoon system