Word.ws English Dictionary

red ensign

red ensign noun: the flag flown by a British merchant ship.

Noun

red ensign (plural red ensigns)

  1. The flag flown by a British merchant ship.
    • Both Worthing and Brighton sail under the red ensign and are excellent testimonials to their British builders, William Denny & Brothers, from whose yard so many notable cross-channel and shallow-draught vessels have come.1939 June, G. W. Tripp, “The Modern Railway Steamer”, in Railway Magazine, page 392
  2. (Canada, historical) Such a flag bearing the coat of arms of Canada, formerly used as a semi-official national flag of Canada.

Forms of red ensign

pluralred ensigns

Questions about red ensign

What does red ensign mean?
Red ensign means the flag flown by a British merchant ship.
What part of speech is red ensign?
Red ensign is a noun.
What is the plural of red ensign?
The plural of red ensign is red ensigns.

Words near red ensign in the dictionary

  1. red ear syndrome
  2. red earth
  3. red egg
  4. red elm
  5. red elms
  6. red ensign
  7. red ensigns
  8. red envelope
  9. red envelopes
  10. red eye
  11. red eyes

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: red ensign (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.

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