march
Verbmarches, marching, marched
Noun pluralmarches
Formsmarches, marching, marched
Pluralmarches
- 1The third month of the Gregorian calendar, between February and April, in which the northward equinox falls.
The new law takes effect on March 1.
Clocks in most of the United States move forward an hour in March.
UsageWrite it with a capital: March. Say in March but on March 1.
- 2To walk with long, regular strides, as soldiers do, or to advance in this way as an armed force.
Recruits learn to march in step during their first week of training.
The honor guard marched in single file past the coffin.
UsageOften with a direction or manner: march across, march past, march in step, march on a place.
- 3A political parade or rally, often held as a protest.
Organizers expect more than fifty thousand people at Saturday's march on the state capitol.
She took part in civil rights marches across the South as a young woman.
UsagePeople go on a march or join a march; it is a march on a place and for or against a cause.
Note
Where a rally gathers in one place, a march carries its cause through the streets, often toward a destination that gives it meaning, as in the Selma-to-Montgomery freedom marches of 1965, whose Bloody Sunday saw 600 marchers attacked with billy clubs and tear gas.
Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 4 facts
- The Selma-to-Montgomery marches took place in 1965 and included Bloody Sunday. nps.gov
- The marchers' intended destination was Montgomery. nps.gov
- There were 600 marchers on Bloody Sunday. nps.gov
- The marchers were attacked with billy clubs and tear gas. snccdigital.org
- 4A formal, rhythmic way of walking, or a journey made on foot in this way, especially by soldiers or people in a ceremony.
The pallbearers carried the coffin up the aisle at a slow, solemn march.
Drill sergeants spend weeks teaching recruits a crisp, even march.
UsageOften at a slow march or a quick march; troops on the move are on the march.
Less common meanings
- 5Steady, continuous forward movement or progression.
The relentless march of automation has transformed factory work.
Historians trace the slow march of democracy across the region.
UsageUsually the march of something: the march of time, the march of progress.
Similarprogression, advancement
Oppositeretreat, regression
- 6To make steady progress, moving forward at an even, unbroken pace.
Technology marches on, and last year's phone already feels slow.
Despite the setbacks, the project continues to march toward completion.
UsageOften march on (time marches on) or march toward a goal.
Similaradvance, progress, proceed
Oppositeregress
Note
The idiom to know is march to a different drummer: to keep one's own pace rather than the crowd's. Wade Nichols, writing in Gay Community News in 1981, bends it into a jab, saying Nancy Walker marches to a different drummer: "marches backwards, that is".
Checked 31 Oct 2026 · 1 fact
- Wade Nichols wrote in Gay Community News in 1981 that Nancy Walker marches to a different drummer, adding the jab "marches backwards, that is". en.wiktionary.org
- 7To make someone walk to a particular place.
Security guards marched the protester out of the building.
The coach likes to march the whole team up the hill before practice.
UsageUsually with a place: march someone out of a building, to an office, off to bed.
Similarescort, frogmarch, lead
Note
With an object the verb implies compulsion: the person walked somewhere has little say, and a destination or direction usually follows. In Barbara Sleigh's Jessamy (1967) an old man seizes the girl by her pinafore frill and marches her to the house, which is the picture the word brings: a firm grip and no detours.
Checked 31 Oct 2026 · 2 facts
- Barbara Sleigh wrote Jessamy, first published in 1967. en.wikipedia.org
- In Jessamy, an old man grabs Jessamy by her pinafore frill and marches her to the house. en.wiktionary.org
- 8A piece of music with a strong, regular beat, composed to accompany marching.
The orchestra closed the Fourth of July concert with a rousing march.
The composer wrote more than a hundred marches for military bands.
- 9Of countries, estates, or regions, to adjoin one another and share a border.
Where the county marches with Wales, the hills grow steeper.
Their lands march together for miles, divided only by a hedge.
Note
Nothing walks here: the verb comes from the border-region noun, so two estates or counties that march simply meet at a shared boundary. A county that marches with Wales calls up a line on a map, not a column of soldiers on the move.
Checked 31 Oct 2026 · 2 facts
- The verb meaning to share a boundary derives ultimately from the border-region noun, through Old French marchir. gutenberg.org
- Estates or counties that march share a boundary. en.wiktionary.org
- 10A border region, especially one originally established to defend a frontier.
Each march was held by a lord whose first duty was to defend the frontier.
Raids across the marches kept the border garrisons busy for generations.
Similarfrontier, borderland
Note
This march came into English by its own road, through Old French marche, a frontier, from a Germanic word for a boundary. It is often plural, the marches, and lives on in old regional names, such as the "March of old Ancona" in Byron's Don Juan.
Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 2 facts
- The border-region noun entered English through Old French marche, meaning boundary or frontier, from a Germanic source. en.wiktionary.org
- Byron's Don Juan contains the regional name in the exact phrase “March of old Ancona”. gutenberg.org
- 11Smallage, a wild form of celery.
Note
An unrelated word hides under the same spelling: Old English merċe, perhaps from an ancient root meaning "sea", with Old Norse merki, celery, among its cousins.
Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 2 facts
- The plant word march has a separate origin in Old English merċe. en.wiktionary.org
- Old Norse merki, meaning celery, is related to the English plant name. en.wiktionary.org
- 12A family name of medieval English origin, first given either to a person whose birthday fell in the third month or to one who dwelt by a frontier.
- 13The feat of winning all the tricks in a single hand of euchre.
- 14A market town in the Fens of Cambridgeshire, in eastern England.
Showing meanings only.
Practice
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Origins
Proto-Germanic *markōną ("to mark") gave Frankish *markōn ("to mark out, to press with the foot"), which became Old French marchier ("to stride, to trample") and Middle French marcher ("to march, walk"). English took it as Middle English marchen. Old English mearc ("mark, boundary") and the English word mark are related.
The Proto-Indo-European root *mórǵs ("boundary, edge") passed through Proto-Germanic *markō and Frankish *marku into Old French marche ("boundary, frontier"). Middle English borrowed it as marche, meaning land along a country's border.
From Middle English merche, from Old English merċe, from Proto-West Germanic *marik, perhaps from Proto-Indo-European *móri ("sea"). It is related to Middle Low German merk, Old High German merc and Old Norse merki ("celery").
Checked 31 Oct 2026 · 5 facts
- March, meaning smallage, derives from Middle English merche. en.wiktionary.org
- Middle English merche derives from Old English merċe, a variant of mereċe. en.wiktionary.org
- The Old English word derives from Proto-West Germanic *marik. en.wiktionary.org
- Proto-Indo-European *móri is reconstructed with the meaning sea. en.wiktionary.org
- March is related to Middle Low German merk, Old High German merc and Old Norse merki, meaning celery. en.wiktionary.org