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A Spanish word that originally meant simply "armed", armada is now used in Spanish-speaking nations as the name of their national navies. In English, the word usually has historical overtones. The Great Armada of 1588 was a 120-ship fleet sent by Philip II of Spain in an attempt to invade Elizabethan England; it was defeated when British forces lit eight ships afire and sent them sailing into the Armada's midst, then blocked the passage to the south so that the remaining ships were forced to sail northward around Britain in order to return home, causing dozens more ships to be wrecked in the stormy northern seas. Today we sometimes use the word humorously for fleets of fishing boats, rowboats, or canoes.
Examples of armada in a Sentence
Ben Oliver, Robb Report, 24 Sep. 2023
Workers on China’s vast armada of squid ships, which make up the majority of the vessels in the fleet, typically spend two years almost entirely at sea, most of the time with no internet or phone signal.
—Los Angeles Times, 7 Nov. 2023
The streets of Beijing still show progress; armadas of electric cars glide by like props in a sci-fi film, and the smoke that used to impose a perpetual twilight is gone.
—Evan Osnos, The New Yorker, 23 Oct. 2023
Courtesy of Apple Part of the problem is the slipperiness of attempting to tie a carbon credit—an abstract financial instrument—to any particular product in Apple’s armada of product offerings or the wider global economy.
—WIRED, 14 Sep. 2023
Almost from the start of the expedition, the armada faced stormy weather.
—Roger Knight, Foreign Affairs, 28 Feb. 2023
From having virtually no tanks and a peacetime economy, America had to build an armored armada that would eventually grow to 16 armored divisions—plus 70 independent tank battalions—by 1945.
—Popular Mechanics, 17 Aug. 2023
China has created an armada of coast guard vessels that rival in size and capability those of actual naval ships, and countries that fear Chinese aggression on the high seas are rushing to build and deploy robust and heavily armed patrol boats of their own.
—Win McCormack, The New Republic, 10 Aug. 2023
Over the coming weeks, the armada raked an area of seafloor equal to the size of Boston.
—Laura Trethewey, Smithsonian Magazine, 1 Sep. 2023
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These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'armada.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.
Word History
borrowed from Spanish, "military force, fleet of warships," from armar "to arm, equip" (going back to Latin armāre) + -ada, suffix of action or result (going back to Vulgar Latin *-āta, noun derivative from feminine of Latin -ātus, past participle ending of Latin first-conjugation verbs) — more at arm entry 2
1550, in the meaning defined at sense 1
Dictionary Entries Near armada
Cite this Entry
“Armada.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/armada. Accessed 11 Dec. 2023.
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More from Merriam-Webster on armada
Nglish: Translation of armada for Spanish Speakers
Britannica.com: Encyclopedia article about armada
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