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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
Barry Scott Zellen, Hartford Courant, 22 Jan. 2026
In early December, as U.S. forces prepared for a possible attack on Venezuela, a Chinese navy ship sailed near the American armada gathered in the Caribbean.
—Simon Shuster, The Atlantic, 14 Jan. 2026
The operation, officials said, unfolded in less than half an hour overnight but drew on weeks of rehearsals and a vast armada of aircraft and intelligence assets that tracked Maduro’s behavioral habits.
—Time, 3 Jan. 2026
In recent months, President Donald Trump has assembled the largest U.S. naval armada in the Caribbean since the invasion of Panama in 1989.
—Max Boot, Washington Post, 3 Jan. 2026
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Cite this Entry
“Armada.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/armada. Accessed 2 Feb. 2026.
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