Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun A staff officer who helps a commanding officer with administrative affairs.
  • noun An assistant.
  • noun Either of two large Asian storks (Leptoptilos dubius or L. javanicus) having a head and neck bare of feathers, black wings, and white underparts.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • Helping; assistant. Bullokar (1676).
  • noun A helper; an assistant; an aid.
  • noun Milit., properly, a regimental staff-officer appointed to assist the commanding officer of a regiment in the discharge of the details of his military duty.
  • noun The adjutant-bird (which see).

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun A helper; an assistant.
  • noun (Mil.) A regimental staff officer, who assists the colonel, or commanding officer of a garrison or regiment, in the details of regimental and garrison duty.
  • noun (Mil.), (Among the Jesuits) one of a select number of fathers, who resided with the general of the order, each of whom had a province or country assigned to his care.
  • noun (Zoöl.) A species of very large stork (Ciconia argala), a native of India; -- called also the gigantic crane, and by the native name argala. It is noted for its serpent-destroying habits.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun military A lower-ranking officer who assists a higher-ranking officer with administrative affairs.
  • noun An assistant.
  • noun zoology A bird in the genus Leptoptilos of the stork family Ciconiidae.
  • adjective The noun used as a modifier (e.g. adjutant officer).

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun an officer who acts as military assistant to a more senior officer
  • noun large Indian stork with a military gait

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[From Latin adiūtāns, adiūtant-, present participle of adiūtāre, to help; see aid.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Latin adiūtō, frequentative of adiuvō ("assist"). First attested in 17th century. Or from Latin adiuvāns, present participle of adiuvō, from iuvō ("help")

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Examples

Comments

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  • The Greater Adjutant is one very strange-looking creature. As is the Lesser Adjutant.

    June 5, 2007

  • Hilarious looking birds.

    June 6, 2007

  • adjutant appears to have a closely homophonic pronunciation and share meanings with the Phoenician word "ajjutant," which means "ajjutant Jjm (pI -i) assistant, helper, attendant ajjutat agg pp helped" (source: http://malta.lebaneseclub.org/dictionary.htm).

    January 12, 2014