overwordExplorer
ENGLISH · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

embargo.

An order by the government prohibiting ships from leaving port.

7 characters3 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

noun/ɪmˈbɑɹɡoʊ/General-American/ɪmˈbɑːɡəʊ/Received-Pronunciation
  1. An order by the government prohibiting ships from leaving port.

  2. A ban on trade with another country.

  3. A temporary ban on making certain information public.

    This copy of the federal budget is under embargo until 2 p.m.
  4. A heavy burden or severe constraint on action or expenditure.

Where this word comes from

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

verb/ɪmˈbɑɹɡoʊ/General-American/ɪmˈbɑːɡəʊ/Received-Pronunciation
  1. To impose an embargo on trading certain goods with another country.

    transitive
  2. To impose an embargo on a document.

    transitive
Where this word comes from

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

FROM WORD TO NAME

Try it on your idea.

embargo has 7 characters. Say it out loud, try it alongside a description of your project, and see whether its meaning fits what you want to create.

embargo studioembargo workshello, embargo

These are naming prompts. Meanings and pronunciation can vary; existing brand and domain uses have not been checked.

Explore the name generator

A word with a source.

Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.

Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.