echelon
playWhat It Means
An echelon refers to a level in an organization or to a group of individuals at a particular level in an organization.
// The school's teams are now playing in a more competitive echelon.
// New hires who are motivated and ambitious will find themselves among the upper echelon of the company in a short time.
echelon in Context
"[Amy Schneider] is already the highest-earning female contestant in 'Jeopardy!' history and is the first transgender contestant to qualify for the 'Tournament of Champions' round. But she still has a ways to go before further cementing herself in the upper echelons of 'Jeopardy!' history." — Brian Boyle, SFGate (San Francisco, California), 15 Jan. 2022
Did You Know?
Echelon comes from scala, a Latin word meaning "ladder" that is also the source of French eschelon, meaning "rung of a ladder." Over time, the French word came to mean "step," "grade," or "level." English borrowed the word and upped its meaning to "a level or category within an organization or group of people."
Test Your Vocabulary with M-W Quizzes
Quiz
Fill in the blanks to complete a word for one of a series of levels in an ordered system: s _ _ _ t _ m.
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