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march

noun · verb

Simple meaning

Walking with regular steps, or steady forward progress

Pronunciation

Say it like this:

mahrch
US device voice
IPA pronunciation (US)

ˈmɑɹtʃ

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.

Word Review

Definition

Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.

noun

  1. A formal, rhythmic way of walking, used especially by soldiers, by bands, and in ceremonies.

  2. Steady forward movement or progression.

  3. The act of marching; walking with regular steps (especially in a procession of some kind)

  4. A steady advance

  5. A journey so walked.

  6. The third month of the Gregorian calendar, following February and preceding April, containing the northward equinox.

verb

  1. Walk fast, with regular or measured steps; walk with a stride

    “He marched into the classroom and announced the exam.”

  2. Walk ostentatiously

  3. intransitive

    To walk with long, regular strides, as a soldier does.

  4. transitive

    To cause someone to walk somewhere.

  5. figurative

    To make steady progress.

  6. intransitive

    To have common borders or frontiers

Word at a Glance

Difficulty
A1 · Beginner (estimated)
Frequency
Very Common
Typical Use
Everyday English

Word Aura™

How this word commonly comes across.

Aura for this meaning

This meaning: A formal, rhythmic way of walking, used especially by soldiers, by bands, and in ceremonies.

Used this way, march is a reasonably familiar word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. It suits considered writing and prepared speech.

Emotional tone
Neutral
Formality
Neutral
Intensity
Not strongly marked
How common
Moderately common
Connotation
Formal and ceremonial
Usage feel
Formal and precise

Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.

More ways to use march

  • “He marched into the classroom and announced the exam.”verb
  • “The Japanese marched their prisoners through Manchuria.”verb
  • “They marched the mules into the desert.”verb

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Common Patterns and Combinations

How this word naturally appears with others.

long marchearly marchborn marchlate march

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Word Family

Related forms, grouped by how they connect.

Inflected forms

Grammatical variations of the same word.

  • marchesnounPlural form

    A region in central Italy.

  • marchingnounInflected form

    The act of marching.

Compound terms

Established multiword terms.

  • marched uponadjectiveCompound term

    Being or having been trodden or marched on.

  • marching bandnounCompound term

    A band that marches (as in a parade) and plays music at the same time.

  • marching musicnounCompound term

    Genre of music written for marching.

  • marching ordernounCompound term

    Equipage for marching.

  • march equinoxnounCompound term

    March 21.

  • march outverbCompound term

    March out (as from a defile) into open ground.

More about this wordSynonyms, forms, origin

Synonyms

Sense: walk fast or with regular or measured steps

stride

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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.