corps

[kawr, kohr] /kɔr, koʊr/
noun, plural corps [kawrz, kohrz] /kɔrz, koʊrz/ (Show IPA)
1.
Military.
  1. a military organization consisting of officers and enlisted personnel or of officers alone:
    the U.S. Marine Corps; corps of cadets.
  2. a military unit of ground combat forces consisting of two or more divisions and other troops.
2.
a group of persons associated or acting together:
the diplomatic corps; the press corps.
3.
Printing. a Continental designation that, preceded by a number, indicates size of type in Didot points of 0.0148 inches (3.8 mm):
14 corps.
4.
Obsolete, corpse.
Origin
1225-75; Middle English corps, cors < Middle French < Latin corpus body; see corpse
Can be confused
core, corp, corps, corpse, corpus.
Synonyms
2. team, force, crew, band.
Examples from the web for corps
  • But to keep track of the uniforms, the corps has adopted a modern approach.
  • The corps was a military expedition, an invading army without the gooey unpleasantness of a real campaign.
  • Anybody who's been in the submarine corps will appreciate that.
  • But the corps further concluded that such scouring would deepen the river enough to accommodate even a huge flood.
  • Onerous security has already constrained what once was an excellent corps of political officers.
  • No need to put anymore corps in the middle which is our problem, too many parasites taking a cut.
  • For me that explains the swaggering esprit de corps so often commented on by impressed visitors.
  • He maintains that notching would destroy the chances of ever completing the dam-something that the corps denies.
  • Something must be done about these giant corps before they make the entire world over in their image.
  • The officer corps understands what is required of them.
British Dictionary definitions for corps

corps

/kɔː/
noun (pl) corps (kɔːz)
1.
a military formation that comprises two or more divisions and additional support arms
2.
a military body with a specific function: intelligence corps, medical corps
3.
a body of people associated together: the diplomatic corps
Word Origin
C18: from French, from Latin corpus body
Word Origin and History for corps
n.

late 13c., cors "body," from Old French cors "body, person, corpse, life" (9c.), from Latin corpus "body" (see corporeal). Sense in English evolved from "dead body" (13c.) to "live body" (14c.) to "body of citizens" (15c.) to "band of knights" (mid-15c.). The modern military sense (1704) is from French corps d'armée (16c.), picked up in English during Marlborough's campaigns.

French restored the Latin -p- in 14c., and English followed 15c., but the pronunciation remained "corse" at first and corse persisted as a parallel formation. After the -p- began to be sounded (16c. in English), corse became archaic or poetic only.