What does "fleet" mean?
A group of vessels or vehicles.
Fleet
/fliːt/ adj, name, noun, verb
adj, name, noun, verb ·Common ·Middle school level
Meaning at a glance
- Primary sense: A group of vessels or vehicles.
- Grammar: fleet is listed as adj, name, noun, verb.
- Nearest alternatives: age group, agile, airliners, alert.
- Useful contrasts: crawl, flotilla, isolated vessel.
- Usage evidence: Our combined fleet broke through the enemy's defense zone.
How to use "fleet"
- Start with the primary definition, then check the part of speech before placing the word in a sentence.
- Compare nearby synonyms to make sure "fleet" carries the exact meaning, tone, and strength you need.
- Use the example sentence as a context check. If your sentence uses the word differently, confirm that the grammar still fits.
Meaning check
- Does the word fit the sentence's grammar?
- Does it match the intended tone rather than only the dictionary definition?
- Would a simpler synonym be clearer for the reader?
- Is there enough surrounding context to prevent ambiguity?
Source and review context
This entry combines structured lexical data with WordToolSet review checks. Definitions, examples, synonyms, and usage notes may come from different source tables, so the page is designed to show evidence from more than one angle before you rely on "fleet" in a final draft.
If a word has several senses, prefer the sense that matches your sentence's grammar and surrounding context. A correct definition can still be the wrong choice when the sentence needs a different register, emphasis, or level of specificity.
Before you rely on this definition
Read the first definition as a starting point, then check the example, synonyms, and part of speech before treating "fleet" as the right word for your sentence.
If your draft is formal, technical, persuasive, or sensitive, compare "fleet" with a nearby alternative so the final choice matches both meaning and reader expectation.
Compare nearby meanings
- Use synonyms when you need a softer, stronger, simpler, or more specific word.
- Use antonyms to check the boundary of the meaning and avoid accidental contrast.
- Use the example sentence to confirm the word behaves naturally in context.
- Keep the original wording when a replacement adds complexity without improving precision.
Definition decision workflow
1. Identify the role
Check whether "fleet" is acting as adj, name, noun, verb in your sentence. A definition is only useful when the grammar matches the way the word is being used.
2. Test the nearest option
Compare it with "age group" and other nearby choices to see whether the sentence needs a softer, stronger, or more familiar word.
3. Confirm with context
Use the example sentence below as an evidence check, then read your own sentence out loud to catch tone or rhythm problems.
Review note: Definition pages are checked for source coverage, sentence evidence, synonym support, and editorial insight before they are treated as approval-ready pages. If the evidence is too thin, the page remains available to users but is kept out of the approval-facing indexed inventory.
Final meaning check
Before publishing a sentence with "fleet", ask whether the word helps the reader understand the idea faster. A precise word should reduce confusion, not simply make the sentence look more polished.
When the definition, synonym evidence, and example context point in the same direction, the word is usually a safer choice. When they conflict, revise the sentence or choose a clearer alternative.
Definitions
Noun
- 1 A group of vessels or vehicles.
"He did discourse to us of the Dutch fleete being abroad, eighty-five of them still, and are now at the Texell, he believes, in expectation of our Eastland ships coming home with masts and hempe, and our loaden Hambrough ships going to Hambrough."
- 2 An arm of the sea; a run of water, such as an inlet or a creek. dialectal
"a certain Flete [...] through which little Boats used to come to the aforesaid Town"
- 3 Obsolete form of flet (“house, floor, large room”). Yorkshire, alt-of, obsolete
"Fire and fleet and candle-lighte"
- 4 a group of warships organized as a tactical unit wordnet
- 5 Any group of associated items.
"This is especially true in distributed printing environments, where a fleet of printers is shared by users on a network."
Show 8 more definitions
- 6 A location, as on a navigable river, where barges are secured.
- 7 a group of steamships operating together under the same ownership wordnet
- 8 A large, coordinated group of people.
"And after the past few days, in which a fleet of Republicans and the president himself have utilized Jews as human shields for racist rhetoric, the Jews are tired, tired, tired of being used as defenses against naked racism, tired of being used to justify conditions at detention camps. Just plain tired."
- 9 group of motor vehicles operating together under the same ownership wordnet
- 10 A number of vessels in company, especially war vessels; also, the collective naval force of a country, etc.
"Despite the line proving to be a useful strategic route for men and supplies to the British naval fleets stationed at Scapa Flow in both world wars, the Duke's legacy looked to have passed into history when it was listed for closure in the infamous Beeching report."
- 11 group of aircraft operating together under the same ownership wordnet
- 12 Any command of vessels exceeding a squadron in size, or a rear admiral's command, composed of five sail-of-the-line, with any number of smaller vessels. British-Royal-Navy
- 13 The individual waves in corrugated fiberboard.
Verb
- 1 To float. intransitive, obsolete
"Legions of Spirits fleeting in the aire, Direct our Bullets and our weapons pointes […]"
- 2 disappear gradually wordnet
- 3 To pass over rapidly; to skim the surface of. ambitransitive
"Long were to tell the troublous stormes, that tosse The private state, and make the life unsweet Who swelling sayles in Caspian sea doth crosse, And in frayle wood on Adrian gulf doth fleet"
- 4 move along rapidly and lightly; skim or dart wordnet
- 5 To hasten over; to cause to pass away lightly, or in mirth and joy. ambitransitive
"They say he is already in the Forest of Arden, and a many merry men with him; and there they live like the old Robin Hood of England. They say many young gentlemen flock to him every day and fleet the time carelessly, as they did in the golden world."
Show 7 more definitions
- 6 To flee, to escape, to speed away. intransitive
"Gratiano:O, be thou damn'd, inexecrable dog! And for thy life let justice be accused. Thou almost makest me waver in my faith, To hold opinion with Pythagoras, That souls of animals infuse themselves Into the trunks of men: thy currish spirit Govern'd a wolf, who, hang'd for human slaughter, Even from the gallows did his fell soul fleet, And, whilst thou lay'st in thy unhallow'd dam, Infused itself in thee; for thy desires Are wolfish, bloody, starved, and ravenous."
- 7 To evanesce, disappear, die out. intransitive
"Portia:How all other passions fleet to air, As doubtful thoughts, and rash-embraced despair, And shuddering fear, and green-eyed jealousy! O love, be moderate; allay thy ecstasy; In measure rain thy joy; scant this excess! I feel too much thy blessing; make it less, For fear I surfeit!"
- 8 To move up a rope, so as to haul to more advantage; especially to draw apart the blocks of a tackle.
"To fleet tackle when pennant block is used, the keeper, with a strap and heaver, racks both parts of hawser together near pennant block, and the tackle is then overhauled and hooked by the men assigned to those duties."
- 9 To move or change in position. intransitive
"We got the long "stick" [...] down and "fleeted" aft, where it was secured."
- 10 To shift the position of dead-eyes when the shrouds are become too long. obsolete
- 11 To cause to slip down the barrel of a capstan or windlass, as a rope or chain.
- 12 To take the cream from; to skim.
Adjective
- 1 Swift in motion; light and quick in going from place to place. literary
"In mail their horses clad, yet fleet and strong."
- 2 Light; superficially thin; not penetrating deep, as soil. uncommon
"fleet Soil, and that 'tis mixed with a great quantity of Earth, Marle, Mud or Clay, &c."
Adjective
- 1 moving very fast wordnet
Proper Noun
- 1 A river (the River Fleet) in London, England, now buried underground, that flowed under the Eastern end of the present Fleet Street.
"This is hard-core London, and just before Farringdon station you will be able to glimpse the vast steel pipe that carries what was the Fleet River and is now the Fleet sewer over your head. The Fleet looks safely contained now, although you never know. It surprises me that no terrorist has made common cause with the surly and embittered Fleet, which, in Peter Ackroyd's words became 'a river of death' as it sidled through the meanest streets of London en route to the Thames."
- 2 A former prison (the Fleet Prison) in London, which originally stood near the stream.
- 3 A river, the Water of Fleet, in Dumfries and Galloway council area, Scotland.
- 4 A river in Highland council area, Scotland, which flows into Loch Fleet.
- 5 A town and civil parish with a town council in Hart district, Hampshire, England (OS grid ref SU8054).
Show 3 more definitions
- 6 A village and civil parish in South Holland district, Lincolnshire, England (OS grid ref TF3823).
- 7 A hamlet in Alberta, Canada.
- 8 A surname.
Example
"Our combined fleet broke through the enemy's defense zone."
Common questions
What is a synonym for "fleet"?
Common synonyms include: age group, agile, airliners, alert, amuse, animated.
How do you use "fleet" in a sentence?
Our combined fleet broke through the enemy's defense zone.
How do you pronounce "fleet"?
Pronounced /fliːt/.
Etymology
Etymology 1
From Middle English flete, flet (“fleet”), from Old English flēot (“ship”), likely related to Proto-West Germanic *flotōn, from Proto-Germanic *flutōną (“to float”).
Etymology 2
From Middle English flete (“bay, gulf”), from Old English flēot (“a bay, gulf, an arm of the sea, estuary, the mouth of a river”), from Proto-West Germanic *fleut, from Proto-Germanic *fleutą. Cognate with Dutch vliet (“stream, river, creek, inlet”), German Fleet (“watercourse, canal”).
Etymology 3
From Middle English fleten (“float”), from Old English flēotan (“float”), from Proto-West Germanic *fleutan, from Proto-Germanic *fleutaną.
Etymology 4
See flet.
Etymology 5
From fleet (“stream, estuary”).