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Sentry vs Sentinel - What's the difference?

sentry | sentinel |

As nouns the difference between sentry and sentinel

is that sentry is a guard, particularly on duty at the entrance to a military base while sentinel is a sentry or guard.

As a verb sentinel is

to watch over as a guard.

sentry

English

Noun

(sentries)
  • A guard, particularly on duty at the entrance to a military base.
  • (uncountable) Sentry duty; time spent being a sentry.

    • See also

    * sentinel

    sentinel

    English

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • A sentry or guard.
  • * 1719-
    • They promised faithfully to bear their confinement with patience, and were very thankful that they had such good usage as to have provisions and light left them; for Friday gave them candles (such as we made ourselves) for their comfort; and they did not know but that he stood sentinel over them at the entrance.
  • * Macaulay
    • the sentinels who paced the ramparts
  • (computer science) a unique string of characters recognised by a computer program for processing in a special way; a keyword.
    • The ''<nowiki>'' tag is a sentinel that suspends web-page processing and displays the subsequent text literally.
  • Watch; guard.
  • * Francis Bacon
    • that princes do keep due sentinel
  • A sentinel crab.

    • Verb

  • To watch over as a guard.
    • He sentineled the north wall.
  • To post as guard.
    • He sentineled him on the north wall.
  • To post a guard for.
    • He sentineled the north wall with just one man.