embark
verb
Simple meaning
To go aboard a craft or vessel for transportation.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
ehmbahrkSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
ɛmˈbɑɹk
This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.
IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.
Definition
Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.
verb
To go aboard a craft or vessel for transportation.
To start, begin.
transitive
To cause to go on board a vessel or boat; to put on shipboard.
transitive
To engage, enlist, or invest (as persons, money, etc.) in any affair.
transitive
To cover or enclose with bark.
Word at a Glance
- Difficulty
- C1 · Advanced (estimated)
- Frequency
- Uncommon
- Typical Use
- Primarily written
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: To go aboard a craft or vessel for transportation.
Used this way, embark is a specialist word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. This is a nautical use: it is standard at sea and largely unfamiliar ashore.
- Emotional tone
- Neutral
- Formality
- Specialist/technical
- Intensity
- Not strongly marked
- How common
- Specialized
- Connotation
- Clinical and technical
- Usage feel
- Technical and specialized
Where it naturally appears
- Sailing/maritime
- Technical/specialist writing
Usage note
In general conversation this sense usually needs explaining — outside its field, people reach for a plainer word.
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
More ways to use embark
- “She embarked upon a new career.”verb
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Common Patterns and Combinations
How this word naturally appears with others.
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Word Family
Related forms, grouped by how they connect.
More about this wordSynonyms, forms, origin
Antonyms
Sense: to go aboard a craft or vessel for transportation
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Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.