The military has a drastically different culture compared to the civilian world, and along with it a language of its own. If you are clueless about military terms while you listen to soldiers speak to each other, it can seem like a foreign language.

If you are a person who likes to question everything, you may be asking why the military has its own slang. Slang is a form of code, and using a secret terminology unifies a group of people when the meanings are understood only among themselves. The military may be subtly encouraging the use of slang as an effective method of increasing troop morale and camaraderie. Also, some slang is borne out of necessity when a descriptive or proper word does not exist in the civilian language.

So study the vocabulary before you enter the service academies to save yourself the embarrassment when you don’t understand what an upperclassmen is saying to you. This will also help in the long run, since this is knowledge that you’ll use for the rest of your military career.

Here’s a quick test. Do you know what the following words mean? If you can answer at least half of them, you are on the right track, but there is still room to improve. If you don’t know any, you better start flipping through the online dictionary of military terms.

1. Cow
2. Klicks
3. Squid
4. Boodlers
5. Supe
6. Zoomie
7. Candidiot
8. Turnback
9. Coastie

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