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Military & Defence vocabulary · Units & Organisation

General Staff

Meaning in military & defence, with examples

nounCommon term

In military & defence, General Staff means: The senior headquarters of the armed forces, made up of high-ranking officers who plan and coordinate military activity and advise the government.

In Turkish: Genelkurmay, Genelkurmay Başkanlığı

How it is used

Its head is the Chief of the General Staff. Structures differ: the US has the Joint Chiefs of Staff and the UK a Chief of the Defence Staff. In lower case, 'general staff' can also mean the staff branches of any large headquarters.

Example sentences

  1. The plan was presented to the General Staff for approval.

  2. He spent three years as a planner at the General Staff.

Common collocations

  • Chief of the General Staff
  • General Staff headquarters
  • serve at the General Staff
  • Ministry of Defence (MoD)The government department responsible for national defence policy, the defence budget, and obtaining and managing military resources.
  • headquarters (HQ)The place, and the staff working in it, from which a commander directs a unit, a formation or a whole organisation.
  • staff officerAn officer who works in a headquarters, helping the commander to plan, organise and coordinate, rather than commanding a unit directly.
  • generalAn officer of one of the highest ranks in an army or air force, who commands large formations or works at the top of the defence organisation.

More terms: Units & Organisation

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