navy
noun · adjective
Simple meaning
A very dark blue color.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
nayveeSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
ˈneɪvi
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
A very dark blue color.
countable and uncountable
A dark blue colour, usually called navy blue.
A dark shade of blue
countable
A country's entire maritime military force, including ships and personnel.
countable
A governmental department in charge of a country's maritime military force.
adjective
Having the dark blue colour of navy blue.
Word at a Glance
- Difficulty
- B1 · Intermediate (estimated)
- Frequency
- Common
- Typical Use
- General English
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: a very dark blue color.
Used this way, navy is a reasonably familiar word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. It usually sounds natural in a wide range of settings.
- Emotional tone
- Neutral
- Formality
- Neutral
- Intensity
- Moderate
- How common
- Moderately common
- Connotation
- Matter-of-fact
- Usage feel
- Neutral and straightforward
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
More ways to use navy
- “My grandfather served in the Navy during the war.”noun
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Common Patterns and Combinations
How this word naturally appears with others.
Word Family
Related forms, grouped by how they connect.
Compound terms
Established multiword terms.
Base of operations for a naval fleet.
White-seeded bean.
A dark shade of blue.
A United States Navy decoration for extraordinary heroism against an armed enemy.
A former executive department of the United States government.
A serviceman in the navy.
More about this wordSynonyms, forms, origin
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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.