Definitions
a diffraction grating consisting of a pile of plates of equal thickness arranged stepwise with a constant offset
Word origin
Borrowed from French échelon (“rung; echelon”), from échelle (“ladder”) + -on (diminutive suffix). Échelle is derived from Latin scāla (“ladder”), from scandō (“to ascend, climb”), from Proto-Indo-European *skend- (“to jump”).
Used in a sentence
“In an echelon, in which several cyclists are sitting in on one another, each rider takes his turn of about 200 meters at the front before dropping to the rear.”
“Cyclists in an echelon take up more room in the traffic lane than they do when riding single or double file.”
“The troops selected by his Royal Highness for this daring exploit, consisted of the war battalions of the 3d, 6th, and 7th regiments of the Royal Guard, forming the first echelon, […]”
Source: Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0
Used as a crossword answer1 curated clues
01“Rank level”7 letters
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