Word.ws English Dictionary

march

UK/mɑːtʃ//mɑɹt͡ʃ/

march noun: a formal, rhythmic way of walking, used especially by soldiers, by bands, and in ceremonies.

march: a formal, rhythmic way of walking, used especially by soldiers, by bands, and in ceremonies
Image: Ibagli, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Noun (1)

march (plural marches)

  1. A formal, rhythmic way of walking, used especially by soldiers, by bands, and in ceremonies.
  2. A journey so walked.
  3. A political rally or parade.
    • Mr. Nelson covered the Selma-to-Montgomery freedom marches, including Bloody Sunday, on March 7, 1965, when 600 marchers were attacked with billy clubs and tear gas.2009 October 21, Dennis Hevesi, “Jack Nelson, Journalist, Dies at 80”, in The New York Times, retrieved 12 Jun 2014
    Synonyms:
    protest, parade, rally
  4. Any song in the genre of music written for marching (see Wikipedia's article on this type of music)
  5. Steady forward movement or progression.
    • the march of time
  6. The feat of taking all the tricks of a hand.

Verb (1)

march (third-person singular simple present marches, present participle marching, simple past and past participle marched)

  1. (intransitive) To walk with long, regular strides, as a soldier does.
    • The column marching in double file, the instructor commands: […]1864, United States War Department, The 1864 Field Artillery Tactics, Stackpole Books, published 2005, →ISBN, page 120
  2. (transitive) To cause someone to walk somewhere.
    • The old man heaved himself from the chair, seized Jessamy by her pinafore frill and marched her to the house.1967, Barbara Sleigh, Jessamy, Sevenoaks, Kent: Bloomsbury, published 1993, →ISBN, page 84
  3. To go to war; to make military advances.
    • The armies drawing constantly nearer to each other, the king advised with his council, whether he should march against the Britons, or sall upon the count of Gharolois.1746, Charles Pinot Duclos, The history of Lewis xi. king of France. Transl, page 169
  4. (figuratively) To make steady progress.
    • Some say history repeats itself, that time is cyclical. Others cling to the notion of progress and change over time. Apparently Nancy Walker marches to a different drummer — marches backwards, that is. Her ideas on art and society seem quaint and odd on the one hand and, on the other, petty and...1981 December 27, Wade Nichols, “Victorian Imperialism”, in Gay Community News, volume 9, number 23, page 5

Noun (2)

march (plural marches)

  1. (archaic, historical, often, plural) A border region, especially one originally set up to defend a boundary.
    • Juan's companion was a Romagnole, / But bred within the March of old Ancona[…].1819, Lord Byron, Don Juan, section IV
  2. (historical) A region at a frontier governed by a marquess.

Verb (2)

march (third-person singular simple present marches, present participle marching, simple past and past participle marched)

  1. (intransitive) To have common borders or frontiers

Noun (3)

march (plural marches)

  1. (obsolete) Smallage.

Proper noun capitalized: March

March (usually uncountable, plural Marches)

  1. (usually) The third month of the Gregorian calendar, following February and preceding April, containing the northward equinox.
    • Holonyms: calendar year; year
    • And on March 21, Virginia passed a law banning colorants from school food, effective July 1, 2027.2025 March 29, Kristen Rogers, “Over half of US states are trying to eliminate food dyes. Here’s what you can do now”, in CNN
    Synonyms:
    Third Month
  2. (usually) A surname from Middle English for someone born in March, or for someone living near a boundary (marche).
  3. (uncommon, usually) A male given name from English.
    • “Kendall told me about a man named March Flack. A radio actor who disappeared years ago. I assumed that was here.”2001, John Dunning, Two O'Clock, Eastern Wartime: A Novel, →ISBN, page 82
    • Alexander Garden Jr., the long-serving rector of South Carolina's St. Thomas parish, twice advertised in 1747 to offer a reward for the return of an enslaved Igbo man named March, who had run away from the parsonage house.2012, Travis Glasson, Mastering Christianity: Missionary Anglicanism and Slavery, →ISBN
  4. (usually) A locality in the Cabonne council area, central New South Wales, Australia.
  5. (usually) A market town and civil parish with a town council in Fenland district, Cambridgeshire, England (OS grid ref TL4196).
  6. (usually) A municipality near Freiburg im Breisgau, Baden-Württemberg, Germany.
  7. (usually) An unincorporated community in Marshall County, Minnesota, United States.
  8. (usually) An unincorporated community in Dallas County, Missouri, United States, named after the month.

march meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu

march in Hindi

formal, rhythmic way of walking
मार्च mārc, पदयात्रा padyātrā
political rally or parade
मार्च mārc, पदयात्रा padyātrā

march in Tamil

மார்ச்சு மாதம், அணிவகுப்பு

march in Marathi

March
मार्च mārca

march in Urdu

حد, کوچ, روانگی, سرحد, سرحدی علاقہ, بہ قطار چلنا
More languagesFewer languages
march in Bengali
মার্চ marco
march in Telugu
గమనము gamanamu
march in Malayalam
ഇംഗ്ലീഷ് മാസക്രമമനുസരിച്ച് മൂന്നാം മാസം, മാർച്ച് മാസം
march in Kannada
ಮಾರ್ಚ್ mārc
march in Punjabi
ਮਾਰਚ mārac
march in Gujarati
માર્ચ mārc
march in Odia
ମାର୍ଚ୍ଚ mārcca
march in Sanskrit
यात्रिक yātrika, यामन् yā́man, अज्मन् ájman
march in Sinhala
මාර්තු mārtu
march in Assamese
মাৰ্চ mars
march in Nepali
मार्च, पदयात्रा
march in Tagalog
martsa
march in Arabic
مَسِيرَة masīra, لَحْن السَّيْر laḥn as-sayr, مَارْش mārš, سَارَ sāra
march in Thai
มาร์ช
march in Vietnamese
hành khúc, hành quân

Examples of march in a sentence

  • After the past week of forced marches, only half the men are fully able.
  • The liquor nerved up several of the men after their icy march.
  • With many flourishes of the captured banner, they marched down the avenue.

All 40 example sentences with march

Synonyms of march

All synonyms of march

Forms of march

Noun
pluralmarches
Verb
third-person singular presentmarches
present participlemarching
past participlemarched
pastmarched
Proper noun
pluralMarches
alternative abbreviationMar
alternative abbreviationMar.
alternative abbreviationMAR

Past tense of march: marched

Plural of march: marches

Origin of march

From Middle English marchen, from Middle French marcher (“to march, walk”), from Old French marchier (“to stride, to march, to trample”), from Frankish *markōn (“to mark, mark out, to press with the foot”), from Proto-Germanic *markōną (“to mark”). Akin to Old English mearc, ġemearc (“mark, boundary”). Compare mark, from Old English mearcian. Compare typologically Russian сле́довать (slédovatʹ) (akin to след (sled)). Also compare пятно́ (pjatnó) (<~ пята́ (pjatá)).

From Middle English marche (“tract of land along a country's border”), from Old French marche (“boundary, frontier”), from Frankish *marku, from Proto-Germanic *markō, from Proto-Indo-European *mórǵs (“edge, boundary”).

From Middle English merche, from Old English merċe, mereċe, from Proto-West Germanic *marik, from Proto-Indo-European *móri (“sea”). Cognate Middle Low German merk, Old High German merc, Old Norse merki (“celery”). Compare also obsolete or regional more (“carrot or parsnip”), from Proto-Indo-European *mork- (“edible herb, tuber”).

Words formed from march

Phrases with march

3 more phrasesFewer phrases

Words that rhyme with march

Questions about march

What does march mean?
March means a formal, rhythmic way of walking, used especially by soldiers, by bands, and in ceremonies.
What is march in Hindi?
March in Hindi is मार्च (mārc), पदयात्रा (padyātrā). See March meaning in Hindi.
What part of speech is march?
March can be a noun, a verb or a proper noun.
How do you pronounce march?
March is pronounced /mɑːtʃ/ (UK).
What is the plural of march?
The plural of march is marches.

Words near march in the dictionary

  1. marcescing
  2. Marcette
  3. marcfortine
  4. marcfortines
  5. marcgraviaceous
  6. march
  7. March Air Reserve Base
  8. March break
  9. March breaks
  10. March comes in like a lion and goes out like a lamb
  11. march flies

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: march (page history and authors); March (page history and authors); march (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); मार्च (Marathi) (page history and authors); march (Urdu Wiktionary) (page history and authors); মার্চ (Bengali) (page history and authors); గమనము (Telugu) (page history and authors); March (Malayalam Wiktionary) (page history and authors); ಮಾರ್ಚ್ (Kannada) (page history and authors); ਮਾਰਚ (Punjabi) (page history and authors); માર્ચ (Gujarati) (page history and authors); ମାର୍ଚ୍ଚ (Odia) (page history and authors); अज्मन् (Sanskrit) (page history and authors); මාර්තු (Sinhala) (page history and authors); মাৰ্চ (Assamese) (page history and authors); march (Nepali, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license). 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.

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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-March.ogg.

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