Embark

How to spell embark

6 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce embark

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does embark mean?

1. verbTo go aboard a ship, aircraft, or other vehicle for a journey.
2. verbTo begin a new and usually significant course of action or undertaking.

Embark in a sentence

• The passengers will embark through the rear gate at noon.

• The couple decided to embark on a complete renovation of the kitchen.

• Travellers must embark at least an hour before the ferry departs.

• After retraining, she chose to embark upon a new career in nursing.

Where does embark come from?

Language of origin: French

This word came into English in the sixteenth century from the French embarquer, which means literally 'to put or go on board a boat'. The French verb was built from the prefix en-, meaning 'in' or 'onto', and barque, a word for a small sailing ship. That barque traces back through Old Provencal to the Late Latin barca, a small boat, the same root that gives English the word 'barge'. The literal nautical sense of stepping onto a vessel came first, and the figurative sense of setting out on any new venture grew naturally from the image of beginning a voyage. The single b and single r in the spelling reflect the simple barca root, which is worth remembering since writers sometimes wonder whether to double a consonant.

How the word is built

• em- (in, on; variant of en-)
• bark (from barque: a small ship)
• (verb)