cadre

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The Word of the Day for February 7 is: 

cadre   \KAD-ray\   noun
     1 : framework 
     2 : a central unit especially of trained personnel able to 
assume control and train others
    *3 : a group of people with a unifying relationship 

Example sentence:
     NASA's cadre of courageous astronauts offered America the 
modern-day heroes it needed.

Did you know?
     To understand "cadre," we must first square our 
understanding of the word's Latin roots. "Cadre" traces to the 
Latin "quadrum," meaning "square." Squares can make good 
frameworks -- a fact that makes it easier to understand why 
first French speakers and later English speakers used "cadre" 
as a word meaning "framework." If you think of a core group of 
officers in a regiment as the framework that holds things 
together for the unit, you'll understand how the "central unit" 
sense of "cadre" developed. Military leaders and their troops 
are well-trained and work together as a unified team, which may 
explain why "cadre" is now sometimes used more generally to 
refer to any group of people who have some kind of unifying 
characteristic, even if they aren't leaders.

*Indicates the sense illustrated in the example sentence.