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“Colonel” or “Kernal”

colonel / kernal are similar-sounding terms with different meanings (referred to as homophones). To better understand the differences, see below for definitions, pronunciation guides, and example sentences using each term.

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Definitions

What each term means

Same sound, different spellings and meanings, shown with a pronunciation guide for each term.

colonel k·ER·n·ah·l

  • nouna commissioned military officer in the United States Army or Air Force or Marines who ranks above a lieutenant colonel and below a brigadier general.

kernal

No dictionary entry for this spelling — see the usage examples below for how it shows up in writing.

Usage

Examples in context

Real sentences for each spelling. Hover an example to copy it.

“colonel”

  • …Mangham and a retired lieutenant colonel of the United States Army…
  • …the United States Army, and Colonel Leslie Skinner.1943 Magnetic proximity fuzeA…
  • A Mai-Mai leader, Colonel Mayele, was arrested by UN…
  • He also became a lieutenant colonel in the service of the…
  • …J. Corso, U.S. Army lieutenant colonel
  • …promoted through the ranks to colonel.
  • …Their Planes Are Missing - Colonel Richard Leman (1967)
  • …he served as a lieutenant colonel on the staff of General…
  • …World War II veteran, Lieutenant Colonel Lyndall Fownes Urwick, Military Cross,…
  • : The Colonel: Compositions & Sound Paintings (Nine…

“kernal”

  • …a BASIC interpreter and the "KERNAL" of its operating system.

Examples are Wikipedia snippets under the CC ShareAlike 3.0 license. Definitions are drawn from WordNet.

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