Government military, Military Army.

A military or military force generally refers to a permanent, professional force of soldiers or guerrillas trained exclusively for the purpose of warfare. These military forces should be distinguished from a sanctioned militia or a levy, which are temporary forces of citizen soldiers with less training who are "called up" in wartime. A military can utilize conscription (the "draft") or be made up of volunteers. In some cases, the term military is used more loosely to refer to any armed force.

Military forces have changed from the sword and spear-wielding footsoldiers of antiquity to Middle Ages soldiers mounted on horseback, to Napoleonic-era soldiers armed with gunpowder muskets and cannons. Since World War I, military forces have used motorized vehicles and rapid-fire firearms.

The doctrine that asserts the primacy of a military within a society is called militarism.

As an adjective, "military" is a descriptive property of things related to soldiers and warfare. It also refers to such context dependent terms such as military reserves which may indicate an actual unit deployable on command or the general sense, of a nation-state's reserve troops available to or eligible for duty in its armed forces.

In formal British English, "military" as an adjective sometimes refers more particularly to matters relating to an army (land forces), as opposed to the naval and air force matters of the other two services. In modern British English, whilst the term is still used in an exclusive sense, it has become common for the adjective "military" to describe all branches of the armed forces.

In American English, "military" as an adjective is more widely used for regulations pertaining to and between military procurement, military transport, military justice, military strength, and military force.