constabulary

From mediaeval Latin conestabularia, a noun use of the feminine version of conestabularius, from Latin constabulus, from comes stabuli, literally ‘master of the stables’.

• IPA^(key): /kənˈstæbjʊləɹi/

constabulary (not comparable)

1. Of, or relating to constables.
2. Characteristic to police; police-like, rather than military.

   Constabulary missions are different from fighting wars.

• constabular

constabulary (countable and uncountable, plural constabularies)

1. A police force.
2. The police in a particular district or area.
   • 1918, W. B. Maxwell, chapter 22, in The Mirror and the Lamp:

     […] the wretched creature went to the police for help; she was versed in the law, and had perhaps spared no pains to keep on good terms with the local constabulary.

Constabulary is a collective noun and usually has no plural. Only when describing groups of constabularies is it used in the plural. For example, the constabularies of England and Wales form part of the constabulary of the United Kingdom.