Barrage

How to spell barrage

7 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce barrage

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does barrage mean?

1. nounA rapid, overwhelming burst of something, such as gunfire, questions, or criticism, delivered all at once.
2. nounAn artificial barrier built across a river or estuary to control the flow or level of water.

Barrage in a sentence

• The minister faced a barrage of questions from reporters after the announcement.

• The tidal barrage protects the city from flooding at high water.

• The artillery barrage continued for hours before the troops advanced.

• Engineers built a barrage across the estuary to manage the river level.

Where does barrage come from?

Language of origin: French

The word comes from the French barrer, meaning 'to bar' or 'to block', which itself grew from barre, a 'bar' or 'beam' laid across something to stop passage. French formed the noun barrage to mean a barrier or a damming up, especially of water across a river. English borrowed it during the nineteenth century in that engineering sense of an artificial obstruction. The familiar military meaning, a rapid and continuous burst of artillery fire, was a First World War development, where a 'barrage' of shells formed a screening barrier in front of advancing troops; from there it broadened into any overwhelming, rapid outpouring of words, questions, or criticism. The doubled r and the soft -age ending preserve the French origin and are exactly where writers tend to slip.

How the word is built

• barr- (from French barre: bar, barrier)
• -age (noun suffix denoting an action or result)