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When Should You Use embargo?
English speakers got embargo—both the word and the concept, it seems—from the Spanish in the early 17th century. The word first referred specifically to a government order prohibiting commercial ships from entering or leaving that country’s ports. (The Spanish word comes from embargar, “to bar.”) By the middle of the 17th century embargo was being used more broadly to refer to any government order that limits trade in some way. Today, the word is applied more broadly still to refer to various prohibitions. Publishers, for example, often place an embargo on a book to prevent stores from selling it before its official release date. And in Jane Austen’s novel Persuasion, Anne Elliot says “I lay no embargo on anybody's words.” We feel similarly.
Examples of embargo in a Sentence
Bruce Yandle, Twin Cities, 3 June 2025
But tariffs are notably different from blockades and embargoes used to oppose military threats.
—Ben Bayer, Oc Register, 19 May 2025
C. Michael White, The Conversation, 14 Feb. 2025
The minerals the Chinese just embargoed have applications in the defense and technology sectors.
—Joseph Epstein, Newsweek, 10 Dec. 2024
See All Example Sentences for embargo
Cite this Entry
“Embargo.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/embargo. Accessed 12 Jun. 2025.
Copy CitationLegal Definition
embargo
1 of 2 noun
embargo
2 of 2 transitive verbNoun
Spanish, from embargar to bar
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