military force

Military has two broad meanings. In its first sense, it refers to soldiers and soldiering. In its second sense, it refers to armed forces as a whole. Over the years, military units have come in all shapes and sizes. They have been as small as a handful of medieval peasants banded together for battle under their feudal lord or as large as the invasion force created in 1944 for D-Day. They can be as rigidly organized as the impis of Shaka Zulu or virtually autonomous like the Knights Templar during the Crusades. Some states - for instance, Sparta or more recently Prussia - have even placed military prowess at the heart of government.
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Noun
1. a unit that is part of some military service; "he sent Caesar a force of six thousand men"
(synonym) military unit, military group, force
(hypernym) unit, social unit
(hyponym) trip wire
(member-holonym) military service, armed service, service
(member-meronym) serviceman, military man, man, military personnel
(classification) military, armed forces, armed services, military machine, war machine