phalanx
/ˈfeɪlæŋks/
noun
- A group of people or things standing closely together for a common purpose, often in a defensive or protective formation.
- The protesters formed a phalanx in front of the building to block the entrance.
- The soldiers advanced in a tight phalanx, their shields overlapping.
- A phalanx of reporters surrounded the celebrity as she left the courthouse.
- In ancient Greek warfare, a military formation of heavily armed infantry soldiers standing in close ranks with long spears overlapping.
- Historians study how the phalanx was eventually defeated by more flexible Roman tactics.
- The Greek phalanx was a powerful fighting unit that dominated battlefields for centuries.
- Alexander the Great used the phalanx to conquer much of the known world.
- Any of the bones of the fingers or toes in humans and other vertebrates.
- The doctor examined the X-ray and found a fracture in the middle phalanx of her index finger.
- He broke the distal phalanx of his toe when he dropped a heavy box on it.
- Each finger has three phalanges, except the thumb which has two.