chevron en · NOUN
Pronunciation
- /ˈʃɛvɹɑn/ (US)
- /ˈʃɛvɹən/ (Received-Pronunciation)
- (Southern-England) audio
Etymology
Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *kápros Proto-Italic *kapros Latin caper Latin *capreus Vulgar Latin *capriō Old French chevronbor. Middle English cheveroun English chevron From Middle English cheveroun, from Old French chevron, the mark so called because it looks like rafters of a shallow roof, from Vulgar Latin *capriō, from Latin caper (“goat”), the likely connection between goats and rafters being the animal's horns.
Meanings
- A V-shaped pattern; used in architecture, and as an insignia of military or police rank, on the sleeve. ▸ A wide inverted V placed on a shield.
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(broadly) A V-shaped pattern; used in architecture, and as an insignia of military or police rank, on the sleeve. ▸ Anything V-shaped similarly to the classic chevron shape.
Jejeune's canoe sent a chevron of silver ripples scurrying across the mirror-calm surface as it carved its path through the dark water.
2019, Steve Burrows, A Dance of Cranes: A Birder Murder Mystery, Oneworld Publications:
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(collective) A group of birds in flight, when flying in a V formation, as in cranes, ducks, geese, gulls, pelicans and swans.
And then we observed what caused us to rub our eyes wonderingly-a chevron of geese gliding directly for the tip of the point.
1928 October, Kendrick Kimball, “Injun Summer Calms”, in Field and Stream, CBS Publications, page 82:A chevron of seagulls passes overhead, wings perfectly still.
2015, Phil Cousineau, The Book of Roads: Travel Stories from Michigan to Marrakech, Viva Editions:That was the first chevron of geese to pass this way.
2007, Robert Fripp, Power of a Woman, Rosetta Solutions, page 169:A chevron of ducks flies high overhead.
2025, Bill Arnott, A Perfect Day for a Walk: The History, Cultures, and Communities of Vancouver, on Foot, Arsenal Pulp Press:As I stood in amaze-ment, chevron after chevron after chevron of these massive birds crisscrossed the sky, practically blocking out the sun and creating an unparalleled cacophony of sight and sound.
2013, Budd Titlow, Bird Brains, Globe Pequot, page 29:
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(UK) One of the V-shaped markings on the surface of roads used to indicate minimum distances between vehicles.
2009, Jamie Dunn, Truckie has a point, Sunshine Coast Daily Online, June 13, 2009. I told you that in fact they were called chevrons and it was an exercise by the transport department to teach us to stay two chevrons behind the car in front.
- A wedge-shaped sediment deposit observed on coastlines and continental interiors around the world.
- Synonym of arrowhead (“horse jump obstacle”).
- Any of various symbols. ▸ A guillemet, either of the punctuation marks “«” or “»”, used in several languages to indicate passages of speech. Similar to typical quotation marks used in the English language such as ““” and “””.
- Any of various symbols. ▸ An angle bracket, either used as a typographic or a scientific symbol.
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(informal) Any of various symbols. ▸ A háček, a diacritical mark that may resemble an inverted circumflex.
It is pertinent to remember, however, that one of the greatest phoneticians, Jan Hus, used diacritics (in the form of points, which have later become chevrons in his own language), and that his alphabet is the most satisfactory for eastern Europe, since it has been officially adopted by the languages which use the Latin script.
1953, William James Entwistle, Aspects of Language, Faber and Faber, page 107:The symbol ř (“r” with a chevron) is used for a phoneme which sounds like Czech ř (as in Dvořák), i.e. a voiced alveolar flap. The presence of the chevron has no effect on the index numbers used in transliteration; cf. 2.058.
1976, Stephen J. Lieberman, The Sumerian Loanwords in Old-Babylonian Akkadian (Harvard Semitic Studies, issue 22; published by Scholars Press for Harvard Semitic Museum), page 66
Forms
| Spelling | Features | Labels | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| chevrons | Number=Plur | lexicographic | |
| cheveron | alternative, dated | lexicographic |
Coordinates
Deriveds
per chevron · chevronwise · chevronny · chevroned · chevronel · chevronelle · chevron bone
Relateds
Synonyms
stripe (rank insignia) · wedge · wicket · angle bracket (typographic and mathematical symbols) · arrowhead
Translations (43)
it segno diacritico a V (V-shaped pattern) · it galloni (V-shaped pattern) · ca xebró (heraldry: wide inverted V) · mk стропило (heraldry: wide inverted V) · pt cabria (heraldry: wide inverted V) · sv sparre (heraldry: wide inverted V) · fr chevron (V-shaped pattern) · hu követési távolság jelzése (V-shaped marking on the surface of road) · fr chevron (heraldry: wide inverted V) · ru шевро́н (V-shaped pattern) · pl krokiew (heraldry: wide inverted V) · nrf kevron (V-shaped pattern) · mi maihi (V-shaped pattern) · ga rachtán (V-shaped pattern) · pt asna (heraldry: wide inverted V) · be шаўро́н (V-shaped pattern) · chr ᏤᏫᎳᏂ (V-shaped pattern) · fi väkänen (V-shaped pattern) · yue 柴 (V-shaped pattern) · cs krokev (heraldry: wide inverted V) · it scaglione (heraldry: wide inverted V) · hu katonai rangjelzés (V-shaped pattern) · pl szewron (V-shaped marking on the surface of road) · it pipa (V-shaped pattern) · es sardineta (V-shaped pattern) · pl szewron (V-shaped pattern) · it frecce segnaletiche (V-shaped marking on the surface of road) · mi pere tapaono (V-shaped pattern) · it scaglione (V-shaped pattern) · el γαλόνι (V-shaped pattern) · es chevrón (heraldry: wide inverted V) · ga rachtán (heraldry: wide inverted V) · bg нашивка на ръкава (V-shaped pattern) · es cabrio (heraldry: wide inverted V) · es chebrón (heraldry: wide inverted V) · uk шевро́н (V-shaped pattern) · nl keper (heraldry: wide inverted V) · fi natsa (V-shaped pattern) · de Sparren (heraldry: wide inverted V) · de Sparren (V-shaped pattern) · mi kaokao (V-shaped pattern) · fi turvavälimerkintä (V-shaped marking on the surface of road) · fi polviorsi (heraldry: wide inverted V)