ensign

1. 1.

   a person who holds a commissioned rank in the United States Navy or the United States Coast Guard; below lieutenant junior grade

   Broadercommissioned naval officer

   military

2. 2.

   an emblem flown as a symbol of nationality

   Synonymsnational flag

   Broaderemblemflag
3. 3.

   colors flown by a ship to show its nationality

   Broadercolors

Other forms of ensign

plural

ensigns·

Forms marked · are formed by the regular rule rather than recorded in the source data. English keeps a few hundred irregulars and the rest follow the pattern, so the rule is right far more often than not — but it is a rule, and the mark says so.

Questions about ensign

What does ensign mean?

ensign means "a person who holds a commissioned rank in the United States Navy or the United States Coast Guard; below lieutenant junior grade". That is the primary sense; the word has 3 in total, listed in full on this page.

How many syllables are in ensign?

ensign has 2 syllables: en-sign. The stress falls on "en". In IPA it is /ˈɛnsən/.

What is another word for ensign?

Close synonyms include national flag. Each sense on this page lists its own synonyms, because a word with several meanings rarely has one substitute that works for all of them.

Is ensign a common word?

ensign is banded "Familiar" — widely understood, used when the subject calls for it. The band comes from how often the word appears in a large corpus of everyday English, not from an editor's impression.