Meaning & use
embark
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Meanings
verbintransitiveformal
To start a new venture, course of action or journey, especially an important or lengthy one.
Grammar: No object; takes on or upon: embark on a new career.
Patterns
- embark on something
- embark upon something
She embarked on a degree in marine biology at the age of forty.
The team will embark on a three-year research project.
After retirement, he embarked upon a series of long walks.
verbtransitive or intransitive
To go onto a ship or aircraft, or to put people or goods onto one.
Grammar: Without an object: passengers embark at noon; with one: the port embarked the troops.
Patterns
- embark at a place
- embark for a place
- embark on a ship
The passengers embarked at Lisbon and sailed for Brazil.
Soldiers embarked on the transport ship at dawn.
The ferry begins embarking cars at nine.
Word forms
| third person singular | embarks |
|---|---|
| past tense | embarked |
| past participle | embarked |
| -ing form | embarking |
Common combinations
- embark on a journey
- They embarked on a journey across the desert.
- embark on a career
- He embarked on a career in teaching.
- embark on a project
- The city is about to embark on a major building project.
- embark for
- The explorers embarked for the Arctic in June.
Synonyms and how they differ
- set out
- Set out is more common in everyday speech and is used for journeys, while embark is more formal and fits big projects too.
- begin
- Begin is neutral and applies to anything, whereas embark suggests a significant step.
- board
- Board only means getting on a vehicle, and has no sense of starting a project.
Opposites
Word family
- embarkation noun
- the act of boarding a ship or aircraft
- disembark verb
- to get off a ship, plane or train
- embarkment noun
- a rare word for embarkation
- bark noun
- an old word for a sailing ship, the root of the word
Commonly confused: embark or embank?
embark vs embank
Embank means to build a raised bank to hold back water; it has nothing to do with starting something.
Practice
After years of saving, the couple finally ___ on a round-the-world trip.
Choose one answer.
Embark is followed by on to mean start an undertaking. Departed would need from, and boarded or launched do not take on in this way.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “embark”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.