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Military & Defence vocabulary · Units & Organisation

headquarters (HQ)

Meaning in military & defence, with examples

/ˌhedˈkwɔːtəz/nounCore term

In military & defence, headquarters (HQ) means: The place, and the staff working in it, from which a commander directs a unit, a formation or a whole organisation.

In Turkish: karargah, komutanlık, merkez

How it is used

Same form in the singular and plural, with a singular or plural verb. Usually shortened to HQ: brigade HQ, NATO HQ. A headquarters can be a building, a group of tents in the field or the staff themselves.

Example sentences

  1. Report to battalion headquarters at 0700 tomorrow.

  2. The headquarters moved to a temporary site during the exercise.

Common collocations

  • brigade headquarters
  • report to headquarters
  • NATO headquarters
  • headquarters staff
  • field headquarters
  • unitAny organised group of military personnel with its own commander and role, from a small team up to a large formation.
  • commanderThe officer in charge of a unit, ship, base or operation, who has the authority and responsibility to make decisions and give orders.
  • staff officerAn officer who works in a headquarters, helping the commander to plan, organise and coordinate, rather than commanding a unit directly.
  • General StaffThe senior headquarters of the armed forces, made up of high-ranking officers who plan and coordinate military activity and advise the government.

This word in other fields

The same English word can have a different meaning in another field:

More terms: Units & Organisation

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