Armada

American  

[ahr-mah-duh, -mey-] / ɑrˈmɑ də, -ˈmeɪ- /

noun

1. Also called Invincible Armada.  Also called Spanish Armada.  the fleet sent against England by Philip II of Spain in 1588. It was defeated by the English navy and later dispersed and wrecked by storms.

2. (lowercase) any fleet of warships.

3. (lowercase) a large group or force of vehicles, airplanes, etc..

   an armada of transport trucks.

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Armada ¹ British  

/ ɑːˈmɑːdə /

noun

1. See Spanish Armada

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armada ² British  

/ ɑːˈmɑːdə /

noun

1. a large number of ships or aircraft

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Etymology

Origin of Armada

1525–35; < Spanish < Latin armāta armed forces, neuter plural of armātus (past participle of armāre to equip with arms). See arm ², -ate ¹

Example Sentences

He did not notice that the parking lot of the building next door, home to the Albuquerque School of Healing Arts, was full of Albuquerque city police cars, an armada of black-and-whites.

From Slate

“If we were to declare victory and basically pull out our armada, or the number of forces we’ve sent there, they would say, we now own the Strait,” Mattis said in front of more than 1,000 energy executives and government officials.

From Barron's

According to a map by the energy analysis firm Kpler, an armada of tankers stretching from the Strait of Malacca near Singapore to gates of the Red Sea are racing to export terminals in Saudi Arabia's Yanbu to fill their cavernous hulls.

From Barron's

But even with a U.S. armada in the region, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei insisted on keeping the capabilities to pursue a bomb.

From The Wall Street Journal

Last month, Larijani traveled to Oman to prepare for indirect nuclear talks with the U.S., as Washington amassed an armada of warships and a fleet of aircraft in the region.

From The Wall Street Journal

Related Words

• fleet
• flotilla
• squadron