A battalion is a military unit, typically consisting of 300 to 1000 soldiers commanded by a lieutenant colonel, and subdivided into a number of companies. In some countries, battalions are exclusively infantry, while in others battalions are unit-level organizations. The term "battalion" was first used in Italian as battaglione no later than the 16th century. It derived from the Italian word for battle, battaglia. The first use of battalion in English was in the 1580s, and the first use to mean "part of a regiment" is from 1708.