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naval

UK/ˈneɪvəl/US/ˈneɪvəl/
adjectiveC1Common in everyday speech and writing · #3,426 of 15,258mostly written

Naval means having to do with a navy. A naval officer, naval base, naval history.

It covers the service and its ships, where maritime covers the sea generally and marine covers the sea itself. Note the spelling against navel, which is the belly button and sounds identical — the two are among the most confused pairs in English. The Latin navis means a ship.

U.S. Navy/Mass Communication Specialist 1st Class Michael Sandberg · Public domain

Definitions of naval

  1. 1adjectivenavalHaving to do with a navy.C1

    “Portsmouth has been an important naval base for centuries.”

naval is a quality of relating to a navy.

Where it comes from

Latin navalis comes from navis, a ship. Navy, navigate and nave come from the same ship.

  1. Latin

    nāvālis

  2. Middle French

    naval

  3. Middle English

    naval

  4. English, today

    naval

From Middle English naval, from Middle French naval, from Latin nāvālis; equivalent to navy + al.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practised in Word Building

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naval in the wild

  • Despite the title, the CNO does not have operational command authority over naval forces.

    Chief of Naval Operations

  • The Royal Australian Navy (RAN) is the naval branch of the Australian Defence Force (ADF).

    Royal Australian Navy

  • The Turkish Naval Forces, or Turkish Navy, is the naval warfare service branch of the Turkish Armed Forces.

    Turkish Naval Forces

  • The world's largest naval aviation force with 4,012 operational aircraft, combat fleets include 471 F/A-18E/F Super Hornets and 458 Sikorsky MH-60 Seahawk helicopters.

    United States Navy

  • But this great naval power could not, in either of those wars, be owing to the act of navigation.

    An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations· Adam Smith

From Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. These sentences were written by other people about their own subjects; they are here to show the word at work, not as anybody’s opinion.

From Project Gutenberg, public domain. These sentences are from real books, shown to illustrate the word at work.

Related words

  • navy