Voyage

How to spell voyage

6 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce voyage

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does voyage mean?

1. nounA long journey, especially one made by sea or through space.
2. verbTo travel a long distance, especially by sea.

Voyage in a sentence

• noun

  The voyage from Southampton to New York took six days.

• verb

  The explorers planned to voyage along the entire coastline that summer.

• noun

  The crew prepared the ship for a three-month voyage across the Pacific.

• verb

  Early traders would voyage for months to reach distant ports.

Where does voyage come from?

Language of origin: French

This word reaches English through Old French voiage, which named a journey or an expedition, and that French form grew out of the Latin viaticum, meaning 'provisions for a journey' or 'travelling money'. The viaticum was in turn built on via, the ordinary Latin word for a road or way, the same root that survives in 'via', 'deviate' and 'obvious'. English adopted voyage in the 1300s, at first for any journey by land or sea, before the meaning narrowed over the centuries toward long travel by water and, later still, through space. The spelling keeps the French oy and the soft -age ending, which is precisely the trap: speakers hear 'VOY-ij' but must remember the silent-looking a before the g. Knowing the road sense of via helps fix the voy- opening, since both share that idea of a way travelled.

How the word is built

• voy- (from Latin via: way, road)
• -age (noun suffix forming an action or process)