Make Your Point: ARMADA

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pronounce ARMADA:

ar MOD uh

connect this word to others:

If you call something an armada, you mean it reminds you of a group of warships.

What if, instead, it reminds you of a group of soldiers? Then you could call it a b_tt_l__n, or a ph_l_nx, or a l_g__n. Could you call all three of those words?

(To reveal any word with blanks, give it a click.)

definition:

(Source)

The painting above shows an armada: a fleet of warships.

The word "armada" came into English from Spanish, but it traces back further to the Latin armare, meaning "to arm people with weapons," and it's related to other words about weapons and fighting, like "arms," "army," and "armory."

Since the 1500s, we've used the word "armada" in English to mean "a fleet of warships," and we can still use that meaning today.

But we can also use it more loosely to mean any large, powerful group of vehicles, or even more loosely, any large, powerful group of things that remind you of a fleet of warships.

grammatical bits:

Part of speech:

Noun, the countable kind: "They sent an armada after us;" "They command armadas."

Other forms:

The plural is "armadas."

In older texts, you may see the noun "armado," which means the same thing as "armada."

how to use it:

Pick the serious, scholarly, semi-common word "armada" when you want to suggest that some group of things seems especially powerful and threatening, as if they've equipped themselves with fighters and weapons and now they're sailing in formation right at their target.

You can get pretty creative with "armada." People have written about armadas of stars, of alien spacecraft, of lawyers, of late-night talk shows, and of percussion instruments. If any group of things seem threatening and well-armed, you can call them an armada.

Your tone could be pretty serious: "We contented ourselves with the view from the hotel’s lovely pool, the armada of mountains providing a backdrop of surly majesty" (New York Times).

Or silly: "an armada of aggressive ducklings" (New York Times); "There’s a new ship in the Lego pirate armada" (Washington Post).

examples:

"For Marfa,
It's the lace dress,
The cake with
Its three tiers,
The pink punch
With its armada of ice cubes."
— Gary Soto, "Ode to Weddings," Neighborhood Odes, 1992

"We woke up later and arranged an armada of pillows so that we could sit comfortably against the edge of the bed and played Counterinsurgence 2: The Price of Dawn."
— John Green, The Fault in Our Stars, 2012

has this page helped you understand "armada"?

Awesome, I'm glad it helped!

Thanks for letting me know!
If you have any questions about this word, please message me at Liesl@HiloTutor.com.

study it:

Explain the meaning of "armada" without saying "fleet" or "force."

try it out:

Fill in the blanks: "An armada of (things or people) arrived, brandishing or threatening (something)."

Example 1: "An armada of photographers arrived, brandishing flash bulbs."

Example 2: "An armada of clouds sailed in behind it, threatening more snow and further darkening the sky."
— Jay Atkinson, New York Times, 12 November 2015

before you review, play:

Try to spend 20 seconds or more on the game below. Don’t skip straight to the review—first, let your working memory empty out.

This month, our game is Botched Songs!

Check out the botched lyrics to a holiday song, and see if you can give me the botched title. It'll include a form of a word we've studied before.

For example, if the real song is "Jingle Bell Rock," then the botched one might be "Jingle Quell Rock." Or if the real song is "It's Beginning To Look a Lot Like Christmas," then the botched one might be "It's Beginning To Look a Lot Like a Chrysalis."

If you need some clues, highlight them to reveal them. And to see the answer, scroll all the way down. Your answer might be different than mine but just as good. Enjoy!

Try this one today:

Come and trim my Christmas tree
With excessive worldly goods from Tiffany's.
I really do worship you.
So pour a bag of cash on me.
—from "_____ Baby"

Clue 1: The word in the blank means… the evil influence of greed, or the evil god of wealth

Clue 2: The word in the blank starts with the letter… M

Clue 3: The word in the blank sounds like… "Santa;" but it doesn't rhyme with it; it's just assonant, with the same vowel sounds and the same pattern of stressed or unstressed syllables, like the words "crisis" and "bikeless."

review this word:

1. The opposite of an ARMADA could be

A. LIVING PROOF.
B. a LAME DUCK.
C. a LONE FIGHTER.

2. Pat Conroy wrote in The Great Santini: "Always, he had dreamed of the day when he could... _____."

A. fire an armada into the sky
B. sink an armada to the depths
C. burn an armada to the very ground

a final word:

I hope you're enjoying Make Your Point. It's made with love.

I'm Liesl Johnson, a reading and writing tutor on a mission to explore, illuminate, and celebrate words.

From my blog:
On vocabulary...
  36 ways to study words.
  Why we forget words, & how to remember them.
  How to use sophisticated words without being awkward.
On writing...
How to improve any sentence.
How to motivate our kids to write.
How to stop procrastinating and start writing.
How to bulk up your writing when you have to meet a word count.

From my heart: a profound thanks to the generous patrons, donors, and sponsors that make it possible for me to write these emails. If you'd like to be a patron or a donor, please click here. If you'd like to be a sponsor and include your ad in an issue, please contact me at Liesl@HiloTutor.com.

A disclaimer: When I write definitions, I use plain language and stick to the words' common, useful applications. If you're interested in authoritative and multiple definitions of words, I encourage you to check a dictionary. Also, because I'm American, I stick to American English when I share words' meanings, usage, and pronunciations; these elements sometimes vary across world Englishes.

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Make Your Point > Archived Issues > ARMADA

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