Armada

[ahr-mah-duh, -mey-]

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.

Armada

¹

/ ɑːˈmɑːdə /

noun

1. See Spanish Armada

armada

²

/ ɑːˈmɑːdə /

noun

1. a large number of ships or aircraft

Word History and Origins

Origin of Armada¹

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

Word History and Origins

Origin of Armada¹

C16: from Spanish, from Medieval Latin armāta fleet, armed forces, from Latin armāre to provide with arms

Example Sentences

“It drinks much like a wine, but it’s more approachable, like a beer,” said Andrew Blake, the founder of Blake’s Beverage Company in Armada, Mich.

Read more on The Wall Street Journal

It put a $50-million bounty on Maduro’s head and massed an armada off the coast of Venezuela, home to the world’s largest petroleum reserves.

Read more on Los Angeles Times

Madness, Scissor Sisters and Groove Armada will be among the acts taking to the event's 12 stages in Hampshire, as well as Mobb Deep and eurodance group Vengaboys.

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The world’s greatest armada was allowed to rot in the harbor, and the Chinese court burned maps to prevent future voyages.

Read more on The Wall Street Journal

And so the mission, as Kimmel put it earlier this week, is to show up not because it’s the Jimmy Kimmel Show or because you’re a monster fan of Jim Comey or Tish James, but because the other side in each of these battles comprises a massing legal armada capable of destroying every one of those people until it comes for the next guy.

Read more on Slate

Related Words

• fleet 
• flotilla 
• squadron