Word.ws English Dictionary

embargo

/ɪmˈbɑːɡəʊ/US/ɪmˈbɑɹɡoʊ/

embargo noun: an order by the government prohibiting ships from leaving port.

Noun

embargo (plural embargoes or embargos)

  1. An order by the government prohibiting ships from leaving port.
  2. A ban on trade with another country.
    • Instead he [Jefferson] proposed an embargo, an end to all trade between America and England.2004, Chris Wallace, Character: Profiles in Presidential Courage
  3. A temporary ban on making certain information public.
    • This copy of the federal budget is under embargo until 2 p.m.
    Synonyms:
    blockade
  4. A heavy burden or severe constraint on action or expenditure.
    • They were delighted with the idea of their mamma having forgiven Louisa, but sorry, she thought, such a public proof of her pardon necessary as that of giving a party; for the sisters well knew how great an embargo it would lay on the purses of Helen and Georgiana;...1842, [anonymous collaborator of Letitia Elizabeth Landon], chapter XXVII, in Lady Anne Granard; or, Keeping up Appearances. […], volume II, London: Henry Colburn, […], →OCLC, page 44

Verb

embargo (third-person singular simple present embargoes, present participle embargoing, simple past and past participle embargoed)

  1. (transitive) To impose an embargo on trading certain goods with another country.
  2. (transitive) To impose an embargo on a document.
    • Embargoed until after first reading in Parliament2023 July 4, “Introduction of the Lease Agreements for Retail Premises Bill”, in Ministry of Trade and Industry, archived from the original on 31 Jul 2023

Proper noun capitalized: Embargo

Embargo

  1. A barangay of Ozamiz, Misamis Occidental, Philippines.

embargo meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Bengali and Malayalam

embargo in Hindi

a ban on trade with another country
प्रतिबंध pratibandh, घाटबंधी ghāṭbandhī

embargo in Tamil

தடையாணை, தடையாணை நிறுத்தி வைப்புக் கட்டளை, நிறுத்தி வைப்புக் கட்டளை, வாணிபத் தடை

embargo in Bengali

বাণিজ্যিক নিষেধাজ্ঞা

embargo in Malayalam

bar, ban, prohibition
നിരോധനം, നിരോധനാജ്ഞ, വിലക്ക്, തട, നിറുത്തൽ, അവസാനിപ്പിക്കൽ
ban, bar, prohibit
നിരോധിക്കുക, നിരോധനമേർപ്പെടുത്തുക, പ്രതിബന്ധിക്കുക, നിഷിദ്ധമാക്കുക, നിറുത്തിവയ്ക്കുക, നിർത്തലാക്കുക
More languagesFewer languages
embargo in Kannada
ತಡೆ, ತಡೆಹಿಡಿತ
embargo in Tagalog
pagpigil
embargo in Arabic
حَصَار ḥaṣār, حَظْر ḥaẓr
embargo in Persian
تحریم tahrim
embargo in Thai
การห้ามเรือ, การห้ามสินค้า
embargo in Vietnamese
cấm vận

Examples of embargo in a sentence

  • What a hypocrite! He talks big about law and order but then he'll also wave an embargoed Cuban in your face!
  • Anyway, with the restrictions and the embargoes, nobody wants to take that kind of risk these days.”
  • An embargo is a restriction upon the transfer of specified goods, usually arms or petroleum products, to the embargoed State.

All 11 example sentences with embargo

Synonyms of embargo

Forms of embargo

Noun
pluralembargoes
pluralembargos
Verb
third-person singular presentembargoes
present participleembargoing
past participleembargoed
pastembargoed

Plural of embargo: embargoes or embargos

Origin of embargo

From Spanish embargar (“to arrest”), from late Latin *imbarricāre (“to bar”), from Latin in- + Vulgar Latin *barra (“bar, barrier”).

Words formed from embargo

Words that rhyme with embargo

Questions about embargo

What does embargo mean?
Embargo means an order by the government prohibiting ships from leaving port.
What is embargo in Hindi?
Embargo in Hindi is प्रतिबंध (pratibandh), घाटबंधी (ghāṭbandhī). See Embargo meaning in Hindi.
What part of speech is embargo?
Embargo can be a noun, a verb or a proper noun.
How do you pronounce embargo?
Embargo is pronounced /ɪmˈbɑɹɡoʊ/ (US).
What is the plural of embargo?
The plural of embargo is embargoes.

Words near embargo in the dictionary

  1. embarcations
  2. embarge
  3. embarged
  4. embarges
  5. embarging
  6. embargo
  7. embargoed
  8. embargoes
  9. embargoing
  10. embargoist
  11. embargoists

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: embargo (page history and authors); Embargo (page history and authors); embargo (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); Embargo (Bengali Wiktionary) (page history and authors); embargo (Olam, E.K. Kurup corpus) (dataset and license); embargo (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-embargo.wav.

Cite this entry: “embargo.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/embargo. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.