What Does AWOL Mean?
AWOL or A-W-O-L is an abbreviation for absent without leave.
To be absent without leave, in the military, means to be absent from your military duties, from your base or station, without permission.
The term AWOL extended into general use and can be used anytime someone is not where they are supposed or expected to be, such as at work, school, or even at home.
Sentence Examples
“Looks like Jerry is AWOL today. Just like him to not show up on inventory day!”
“If mom finds out you were AWOL from school she’ll go ballistic.”
“I almost went AWOL when my car broke down at the end of my leave, but luckily my supervisor was a good buddy and gave me an extra day off.”
“If you are AWOL for more than 30 days, you’re considered a deserter. That’s way more serious!”
“The governor has been AWOL during this crisis and the press is going ballistic.”
“You can’t depend on the building superintendent to fix anything. He’s been basically AWOL for a couple of years, now.”
“The unit’s commanding officer noted that any soldier found AWOL would face a summary court-martial.”
“I’ve been trying to reach the project lead all morning, but he seems to have gone completely AWOL since the deadline passed.”
“The star player was conspicuous by being AWOL from the mandatory practice session just days before the championship game.”
Origin of AWOL
In order to spend time away from military duty, such as to spend time with family, one has to put in advance notice for leave, or what used to be called furlough. If a soldier goes away without applying for leave, he has gone AWOL. Originally, though, the word leave simply meant ‘permission.’ It takes a bit more than simple permission to ‘go on leave’ today. Military members, like many civilian employees, are allowed a certain amount of paid leave each year.
This term and its pronunciation as an acronym, as we know it today, originated in the United States Military during World War I although there are unsubstantiated claims that it originated earlier, such as during the Civil War. The phrase itself, absent without leave, was used as early as the 1600s.
Does the O Stand for Official?
A common misconception is that AWOL stands for Absent Without Official Leave. While some civilian agencies and HR departments use this phrasing to distinguish between types of unexcused absences, it is not the original military definition.
In the military, the “O” is simply a phonetic addition taken from the middle of the word withOut to make the acronym easier to pronounce as a word (“ay-wol”). Furthermore, the word “official” is redundant in a military context; all authorized leave is by definition official. The addition of “official” is a form of folk etymology, an attempt to explain an acronym that people assume must be a four-word phrase.