We'd like to use analytics cookies to understand which symbols people look up, so we know what to research next. They are not used for advertising and we set none of them unless you say yes. What we store.
A star worn as a rank device, most familiar on general officers' insignia.
Also known as: General's star, Rank star, Four-star general
A star used to mark rank. Universally recognised as a device and entirely inconsistent as a meaning: one star is a brigadier general in the United States and a second lieutenant's pip in Britain has a different form again.
A star, borne singly or in groups, used as a rank device on shoulder boards, collars or sleeves.
In United States practice one to five stars denote the general and flag officer ranks, which is the origin of the everyday expressions 'four-star general' and 'five-star hotel'.
United States
Not internationally consistent: star counts and their rank correspondences differ between armies, and some services use pips, crowns or bars for the same ranks.
A star count does not identify a rank without knowing the country and service.
A five-pointed star, borne alone or in a row or cluster with others.
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.