Ark

//ɑɹk// name, noun

name, noun ·Common ·High school level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    A large box with a flat lid.
  2. 2
    a boat built by Noah to save his family and animals from the flood wordnet
  3. 3
    Noah's ark: the ship built by Noah to save his family and a collection of animals from the deluge. Judaism

    "In the midrash about Noah it says that Noah had a stone which, when held up in the darkness of the ark, would change color when the sun was shining outside."

  4. 4
    Something affording protection; safety, shelter, refuge.

    "the Ark of Bukhara"

  5. 5
    The body as a vessel. figuratively

    "Like her I go; I cannot stay; ⁠I leave this mortal ark behind, A weight of nerves without a mind, And leave the cliffs, and haste away […]"

Show 3 more definitions
  1. 6
    A spacious type of boat with a flat bottom.

    "Some seventy or seventy-five arks were permanently located on McLeod's Lake and between 110 and 125 people lived in them."

  2. 7
    The Ark of the Covenant. Judaism
  3. 8
    A decorated cabinet at the front of a synagogue, in which Torah scrolls are kept. Judaism
Proper Noun
  1. 1
    The boat built by the Biblical Noah to carry himself and the animals of the planet during the Flood.
  2. 2
    The chest carried by the Hebrews containing the stone tablets carved with the Ten Commandments.

Example

More examples

"We should never forget that the Titanic was built by professionals and Noah's Ark was built by laymen..."

Etymology

From Middle English arke, from Old English earc, ærc, from Latin arca (“chest, box, coffer”), from arceō (“I enclose”).

Related phrases

Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.