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Definition of admiral
1 archaic : the commander in chief of a navy
2a : flag officerb : a commissioned officer in the navy or coast guard who ranks above a vice admiral and whose insignia is four stars — compare general
3 archaic : flagship
4 : any of several brightly colored nymphalid butterflies — compare red admiral
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Recent Examples of admiral from the Web
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At a very civilized dinner aboard one of the ships, at a table with two admirals and Maj.
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The school-textbook version of the battle goes like this: Following the attack on Pearl Harbor, Japanese admirals planned to attack the U.S. outpost on Midway Island, about 1,300 miles west of Hawaii.
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Last month, exiles in Orlando stood outside the home of a former admiral of the Venezuelan Navy.
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Monday’s free event will honor about a half dozen local Midway survivors, all in their 90s now, and will include speeches by Navy admirals and a flyover of military jets.
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Seventy-five years ago this Sunday, some 150 Japanese warships, 250 warplanes and 25 admirals were steaming toward a small atoll 1,300 miles northwest of Oahu.
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How to respond to China’s growing naval power has preoccupied many of the admirals, ministers and defense contractors who are expected to begin assembling Friday at the Shangri-La Hotel in Singapore.
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Jim Syring is the vice admiral who directs the Pentagon agency in charge of developing the missile defense system.
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Gregg’s group was greeted by bands, generals, admirals, the Marlins dancers and his favorite — a Cub Scout pack standing at attention.
These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'admiral'. Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
Did You Know?
It is a curiosity of history that the word admiral has its source in Arabic, the language of a desert people who acquired their seafaring skills after the great expansion of Islam in the seventh century. As the name for a Muslim chieftain, the Arabic word amir appears as a loanword in medieval Latin documents in spellings such as amiratus, admirandus, and admirallus. These words display a variety of suffixes and an added d, through confusion with the Latin verb admirari, “to admire.” The ending -allus is probably from the Arabic article al, which actually belongs to the following word in phrases such as amir al-‘ali, “supreme commander.” The application of admirallus to a commander of a fleet originated in 12th-century Sicily, was adopted by the Genoese, and then spread to countries throughout western Europe, including France and England.
Origin and Etymology of admiral
Middle English, from Anglo-French amiral commander & Medieval Latin admiralis emir, admirallus admiral, from Arabic amīr-al- commander of the (as in amīr-al-baḥr commander of the sea)
ADMIRAL Defined for English Language Learners
admiral
playDefinition of admiral for English Language Learners
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: a high-ranking officer in the navy
ADMIRAL Defined for Kids
admiral
playDefinition of admiral for Students
: a commissioned officer in the navy or coast guard ranking above a vice admiral
History for admiral
The word admiral looks a lot like the word admire. The two words, though, are not related. Admire came from a Latin verb that meant “to marvel at.” Admiral came from an Arabic title that meant “commander.” It may have been part of a phrase that meant “commander of the sea.”
Learn More about admiral
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Spanish Central: Translation of admiral Nglish: Translation of admiral for Spanish speakers Britannica English: Translation of admiral for Arabic speakers Britannica.com: Encyclopedia article about admiral
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