Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun A separate branch or department of the armed forces having a specialized function.
  • noun A tactical unit of ground combat forces between a division and an army commanded by a lieutenant general and composed of two or more divisions and auxiliary service troops.
  • noun A body of persons acting together or associated under common direction.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun The older spelling of corpse.
  • noun A body; a visible object: only in the legal phrase corps certain (which see, below).
  • noun A body or number of persons conventionally or formally associated or acting together: as, the diplomatic corps. See Corps Législatif, below, and esprit de corps, under esprit.
  • noun Milit.: A part of the army expressly organized according to the Articles or War, and having a head and members, as a regiment or an independent company, or any other military body having such organization: as, the Marine Corps; the Corps of Topographical Engineers; hospital corps, etc.
  • noun More specifically, the tactical unit of a large army next above a division.
  • noun In the German universities, a students' society.
  • noun One of the several bodies of officers charged with special administrative duties in the army or navy.
  • noun a body of picked men.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun obsolete The human body, whether living or dead.
  • noun A body of men; esp., an organized division of the military establishment; ; specifically, an army corps.
  • noun obsolete A body or code of laws.
  • noun (Eccl.), obsolete The land with which a prebend or other ecclesiastical office is endowed.
  • noun In some countries of Europe, a form of students' social society binding the members to strict adherence to certain student customs and its code of honor; -- Ger. spelling usually korps.
  • noun a body containing two or more divisions of a large army, organized as a complete army in itself.
  • noun the principal mass of a building, considered apart from its wings.
  • noun the body of ministers or envoys accredited to a government.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun military A battlefield formation composed of two or more divisions.
  • noun An organized group of people united by a common purpose.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun a body of people associated together
  • noun an army unit usually consisting of two or more divisions and their support

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[French, from Old French, from Latin corpus, body; see kwrep- in Indo-European roots.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Borrowing from French corps ("body"), from Latin corpus ("body").

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Examples

Comments

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  • "A separate branch or department of the armed forces having a specialized function.

    A tactical unit of ground combat forces between a division and an army and composed of two or more divisions and auxiliary service troops."

    March 17, 2008

  • corps not core " marine corps "

    September 21, 2013