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A small star-shaped device marking junior officer rank in British practice.
Also known as: Subaltern's pip
The British Army's junior officer rank device, formally a Bath star: an eight-pointed star bearing a motto within a circle. Called a pip in ordinary speech, and quite distinct in form from the plain five-pointed star used elsewhere.
A small star device worn on the shoulder to mark junior commissioned rank in the British Army and in a number of Commonwealth armies.
United Kingdom
Formally a star of the Order of the Bath: an eight-pointed star with a circular centre bearing a motto, rather than the plain five-pointed star used as a rank device in other armies.
United Kingdom
One pip denotes a second lieutenant, two a lieutenant and three a captain — a captain in British service therefore wears three stars where a US Army captain wears two bars, and three stars in US service is a lieutenant general.
The contrast with US practice is the clearest illustration that star counts are not internationally readable.
United Kingdom
An eight-pointed star with a circle at its centre containing a motto ring, worn small on a shoulder board.
A British pip is an eight-pointed Bath star and a US rank star is a plain five-pointed star; both are called stars and they denote quite different ranks.
Both are small rank devices worn on shoulder or collar.