Blockade

How to spell blockade

8 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce blockade

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does blockade mean?

1. nounThe act of sealing off a place to prevent goods or people from entering or leaving, or the barrier used to do so.
2. verbTo seal off a place or route so that nothing can pass through.

Blockade in a sentence

• noun

  The navy enforced a strict blockade on the enemy port.

• verb

  The strikers planned to blockade the factory entrance at dawn.

• noun

  Protesters set up a blockade across the main road into the city.

• verb

  Warships moved in to blockade the harbour overnight.

Where does blockade come from?

Language of origin: French

Blockade entered English in the early 1690s and was formed from the native English word 'block', meaning a solid mass or obstruction, plus the suffix '-ade'. That ending was borrowed from French and ultimately Spanish and Italian, where it marked the result of an action (as in 'lemonade' or 'cavalcade'), and it was deliberately attached to give 'block' a more formal, military flavour. The word originally described the act of surrounding a town, port, or fortress with troops or ships so that nothing could pass in or out. From that strict military sense it broadened to cover any obstruction that seals off movement, such as a road blockade during a protest. Because '-ade' is a borrowed dressing on a plain Germanic root, spellers sometimes hesitate over the ending, but it follows the same pattern as 'barricade' and 'cavalcade'.

How the word is built

• block (barrier, obstruction)
• -ade (noun/verb suffix denoting an action or its result)