phalanx

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin phalanx or Ancient Greek φάλαγξ (phálanx, “battle order, array”). Doublet of phalange and plank.

noun

1. (historical, plural phalanxes) An ancient Greek and Macedonian military unit that consisted of several ranks and files (lines) of soldiers in close array with joined shields and long spears.
2. (historical sociology) A Fourierite utopian community; a phalanstery.
   [Charles Fourier] calculated that if precisely 1,620 men, women and children were collected in a 6,000-acre phalanx, they would — all by merrily following their individual passions — end up satisfying all the phalanx’s essential needs. 2009-04-16, Jon Mooallem, “The End Is Near! (Yay!)”, in The New York Times, →ISSN
3. (plural phalanxes or (rare) phalanges) A large group of people, animals or things, compact or closely massed, or tightly knit and united in common purpose.
   The monarch hath gone, but his rocky throne Still rests on its frowning base; Its motionless guards rise in phalanx lone, And nought save the winds through their helmets that moan, And none but those bosoms and hearts of stone Sigh o'er a fallen race. 1827, Lydia Sigourney, Poems, The Chair of the Indian KIng, page 93
   From Courbevoie to the Hôtel des Invalides, one walked through a hedge of elaborate decorations—of bees, eagles, crowns, N’s; of bucklers, banners, and wreaths bearing the names of famous victories; of urns blazing with incense; of rostral columns; masts bearing trophies of arms and clusters of flags; flaming tripods; allegorical statues; triumphal arches; great banks of seats draped in imperial purple and packed with spectators, and phalanges of soldiers. 1895, Ida M[inerva] Tarbell, “The Second Funeral of Napoleon.—Removal of Napoleon’s Remains from St. Helena to the Banks of the Seine in 1840.”, in A Short Life of Napoleon Bonaparte, New York, N.Y.: S[amuel] S[idney] MᶜClure, Limited[…], page 240, column 1
   Broad phalanx of cars across the bridge moving slowly through the streaming snow. 1963, J P Donleavy, A Singular Man, published 1963 (USA), page 331
   The Guardian today listed a phalanx of ministers who back the bill, including Tessa Jowell, the culture secretary, Tony McNulty, the policing minister, Andy Burnham, the junior health minister, Ian Pearson, the climate change minister, John Healey, the financial secretary to the Treasury, and Keith Hill, parliamentary private secretary to Tony Blair. 25 April 2007, Hélène Mulholland, “Blair refuses to condemn FoI bill”, in The Guardian, London, archived from the original on 2014-10-03
   There, the Paisleyites were being held back by another phalanx of soldiers and policemen. 6 May 2007, Sean O'Hagan, “The day I thought would never come: This week, Ian Paisley and Martin McGuinness will astonish those who experienced the Troubles”, in The Guardian, London, archived from the original on 2014-10-03
   For a short time the two phalanges of men faced each other at a distance apart. 2009, Maria Nugent, “[In between] The second day”, in Captain Cook Was Here, Cambridge University Press, page 58
   The next day, phalanges of soldiers blocked all entrances to the city as rumours that Muslim workers from all around Calcutta would throng the venue of the meeting in protest reached the commissioner of the city Police. 2022, Sugata Nandi, “Insurrectionary city: Revolts in colonial Calcutta, 1918–1946”, in Urvi Mukhopadhyay, Suchandra Ghosh, editors, Exploring South Asian Urbanity, Routledge, →DOI, part V (Urban fringes and insurrections), chapter section “The mass and Gandhi Raj, 1918–1922”
4. (anatomy, plural phalanges) One of the bones of the finger or toe.