letter of marque
noun
Simple meaning
A license to a private citizen to seize property of another nation.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
lehteruhvmahrkSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
ˈlɛtɚˈʌvˈmɑɹk
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.
noun
nauticalhistorical
A license to a private citizen to seize property of another nation
nauticalhistorical
An official commission from a government authorizing someone to seize the property or people of another nation; especially to attack merchant shipping of another nation.
nauticalhistorical
A ship that has been armed for such a task.
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: A license to a private citizen to seize property of another nation
Used this way, letter of marque is an older-sounding 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
- Dated
- Connotation
- Old-fashioned
- Usage feel
- Dated in modern speech
Where it naturally appears
- Sailing/maritime
- Technical/specialist writing
- Historical writing
- Literature/storytelling
Usage note
This meaning still makes sense to most readers, but it sounds a generation behind current usage.
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
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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.