different between coalition vs squad

English

Alternative forms

• coälition (rare)

Etymology

From French coalition (“coalition”), from Late Latin alo (“I advance (cause, etc., communion)”).

Pronunciation

• (US) enPR: k??l?'sh?n, IPA^(key): /ko???l???n/
• Rhymes: -???n

Noun

coalition (countable and uncountable, plural coalitions)

1. A temporary group or union of organizations, usually formed for a particular advantage.

   The Liberal Democrats and Conservative parties formed a coalition government in 2010.

   • 2013 May 23, Sarah Lyall, "British Leader’s Liberal Turn Sets Off a Rebellion in His Party," New York Times (retrieved 29 May 2013):

     At a time when Mr. Cameron is being squeezed from both sides — from the right by members of his own party and by the anti-immigrant, anti-Europe U.K. Independence Party, and from the left by his Liberal Democrat coalition partners — the move seemed uncharacteristically clunky.

2. (rare) The collective noun for a group of cheetahs.
   • 2013 August 7, Joshi Herrmann, "How cricket netted the hipsters", London Evening Standard

     Sometimes the ante is upped, the gaggle of bowlers all working on their batsman in turn, like a coalition of cheetahs singling out a vulnerable gazelle, sending their distinctive balls down until the pressure forces a mistake or the batsman gets his own back by smashing a bad ball over everyone’s heads.

   • 2014 September 6, Darren Boyle, "Running wild! Mother cheetah has SIX cubs keeping her busy by jumping, hiding and climbing all over her", The Daily Mail

     Majed Sultan Ali was on his second visit to the game reserve in a bid to photograph a coalition of cheetahs.

   • 2015 June 11, "This is the moment an ostrich attempts to outrun cheetahs in Sir David Attenborough's latest show", Bristol Post

     This is the incredible moment a juvenile ostrich attempts to outrun a coalition of cheetahs that forms a central part of the latest BBC programme to be presented by Sir David Attenborough.

Derived terms

Translations

Further reading

• coalition on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

Anagrams

• coitional

French

Alternative forms

• coälition (rare)

Etymology

From Late Latin coalitus (“fellowship, communion”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /k?.a.li.sj??/

Noun

coalition f (plural coalitions)

1. coalition

Further reading

• “coalition” in Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).

English

Etymology 1

From French escouade, from Italian squadra (“square”) (whence also French escadre).

Alternative forms

• escouade (archaic)

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /?skw?d/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /?skw?d/
• Rhymes: -?d

Noun

squad (plural squads)

1. A group of people organized for some common purpose, usually of about ten members.
   1. A unit of tactical military personnel, or of police officers, usually of about ten members.
      • 1912, in The New England magazine, volume 47:

        A squad of soldiers ordered them to disperse but instead of doing so they commenced throwing ice and rocks.

   2. (cricket, soccer, rugby) A group of potential players from whom a starting team and substitutes are chosen.
   3. (informal) A collective noun for a group of squid.
      • 1970, TV Guide:

        At one point, the 400-ton Calypso was brought to a standstill by a squad of squid which clogged the engines and caused a power failure. Other, highlights included an attack by predatory blue sharks, […]

      • 2002, Let's Go Inc., Let's Go 2003: Britain & Ireland, Let's Go Publications:

        The Sea Life Centre retains a squad of squid and such.

      • 2012, S. Louis King, Gnome Home Papers, AuthorHouse (?ISBN), page 546:

        There's several new symbols next to the doorway symbol. Beso pushed all six of them without waiting to see what they brought; like a herd of charging rhinos or rampaging squad of squid. Next best thing though.

      • 2017, Kristen Joy Wilks, Athens Ambuscade, Pelican Ventures Book Group (?ISBN)

        I pulled in as deep a breath as my gag allowed and began relaxing my body. I used a little trick I'd learned in college. I imagined that a friendly squad of squid were massaging every muscle on the bottoms of my feet; the tension began to drain.

2. (slang) One's friend group, taken collectively; one's peeps.

Derived terms

• firing squad
• flying squad
• God squad

Related terms

• squadron

Translations

See also

• Appendix:English collective nouns

Verb

squad (third-person singular simple present squads, present participle squadding, simple past and past participle squadded)

1. (intransitive) To act as part of, or on behalf of, a squad.

   We squad on the fifth of the month.

Etymology 2

Uncertain. Compare squick (“disgust”), squalid (“dirty”) with similar initial sounds.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?skwæd/

Noun

squad

1. (Britain, dialect) Sloppy mud. [from the mid-17th c.]
   • 1875 March 13, Leicester Chronicle, quoted in the EDD:

     The lass ran all among the muck and squad.

   • 1895, Alfred Tennyson, The Poetical Works of Alfred Tennyson: Poet-laureate, page 791:

     An' she did n't not solidly mean I wur / gawin' that waäy to the bad,

     Fur the gell was as howry a trollope as / iver traäpes'd i' the squad.

Further reading

• Robert Eden George Cole, A Glossary of Words Used in South-west Lincolnshire (1886), page 140

Anagrams

• quads

Spanish

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /es?kwad/, [es?kwað?]

Noun

squad m (plural squads or squad)

1. squad