phalanx
noun
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The original sense of phalanx refers to a military formation that was used in ancient warfare and consisted of a tight block of soldiers standing shoulder to shoulder, several rows deep, often with shields joined. The word phalanx comes from the Greeks, though they were not the only ones who used this formation. The Greek term literally means "log" and was used for both this line of battle and for a bone in a finger or toe. The word and its senses passed into Latin and then were adopted into English in the 16th century. These days, a phalanx can be any arranged mass, whether of persons, animals, or things, or a body of people organized in a particular effort.
Examples of phalanx in a Sentence
Keith Sharon, USA TODAY, 2 Sep. 2024
Quickly rising to his feet amid a phalanx of U.S. Secret Service agents, Trump pumped a fist at the crowd as blood seeped from the side of his head.
—Daniel Miller, Los Angeles Times, 14 July 2024
Around lunchtime on Tuesday, the former Presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy, trailed by a phalanx of aides, stepped out of the sun on the plaza outside Milwaukee’s Fiserv Forum, where the Republican National Convention is being held, and sat down at a sports pub named the New Fashioned.
—Benjamin Wallace-Wells, The New Yorker, 18 July 2024
This sense of professional and moral responsibility seems to have driven the authors of this book and the phalanx of funders and government officials who contributed to the discussions that underpin it.
—Suzanne Maloney, Foreign Affairs, 10 Dec. 2019
See all Example Sentences for phalanx 
These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'phalanx.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.
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“Phalanx.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/phalanx. Accessed 12 Sep. 2024.
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phalanx
noun
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