Ensign vs. Flag — What's the Difference?

An ensign is the national flag flown on a vessel to indicate nationality. The ensign is the largest flag, generally flown at the stern (rear) of the ship while in port.

A flag is a piece of fabric (most often rectangular or quadrilateral) with a distinctive design and colours. It is used as a symbol, a signalling device, or for decoration.

A national flag displayed on ships and aircraft, often with the special insignia of a branch or unit of the armed forces.

A piece of cloth or similar material, typically oblong or square, attachable by one edge to a pole or rope and used as the symbol or emblem of a country or institution or as a decoration during public festivities

A standard or banner, as of a military unit.

A small piece of cloth attached at one edge to a pole and used as a marker or signal in various sports

A commissioned rank in the US Navy or Coast Guard that is below lieutenant junior grade.

A variable used to indicate a particular property of the data in a record.

One who holds this rank or a similar rank in another military organization.

A flat stone slab, typically rectangular or square, used for paving.

A badge, emblem, or token of power or authority.

A plant with sword-shaped leaves that grow from a rhizome.

A badge of office, rank, or power.

Mark (an item) for attention or treatment in a specified way

The lowest grade of commissioned officer in the United States Navy, junior to a lieutenant junior grade.

Signal to a vehicle or driver to stop, especially by waving one's arm

A flag or banner carried by military units; a standard or color/colour.

Provide or decorate with a flag or flags.

(nautical) The principal flag or banner flown by a ship (usually at the stern) to indicate nationality.

Become tired or less enthusiastic or dynamic

Any prominent flag or banner.

A piece of cloth, usually rectangular, of distinctive color and design, used as a symbol, standard, signal, or emblem.

(historical) A junior commissioned officer in the 18th and 19th centuries whose duty was to carry the unit's ensign.

National or other allegiance, as symbolized by a flag

(obsolete) To designate as by an ensign.

A ship carrying the flag of an admiral; a flagship.

To distinguish by a mark or ornament.

A marking device, such as a gummed strip of paper, attached to an object to attract attention or ease identification; a tab.

(heraldry) To distinguish by an ornament, especially by a crown.

The masthead of a newspaper.

A flag; a banner; a standard; esp., the national flag, or a banner indicating nationality, carried by a ship or a body of soldiers; - as distinguished from flags indicating divisions of the army, rank of naval officers, or private signals, and the like.

(Music) A cross stroke that halves the value of a note to which it is added.

A signal displayed like a standard, to give notice.

A distinctively shaped or marked tail, as of a dog or deer.

Sign; badge of office, rank, or power; symbol.

(Computers) A variable or memory location that stores true-or-false, yes-or-no information.

Formerly, a commissioned officer of the army who carried the ensign or flag of a company or regiment.

A plant, such as an iris or cattail, that has long sword-shaped leaves.

To designate as by an ensign.

A flagstone.

To distinguish by a mark or ornament; esp. (Her.), by a crown; thus, any charge which has a crown immediately above or upon it, is said to be ensigned.

To mark with a flag or flags for identification or ornamentation

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

To signal with or as if with a flag.

An emblem flown as a symbol of nationality

To signal to stop

Colors flown by a ship to show its nationality

To lose vigor or strength; weaken or diminish

To pave with slabs of flagstone.

A piece of cloth, often decorated with an emblem, used as a visual signal or symbol.

An exact representation of a flag (for example: a digital one used in websites).

(nautical) A flag flown by a ship to show the presence on board of the admiral; the admiral himself, or his flagship.

A signal flag.

The use of a flag, especially to indicate the start of a race or other event.

(computer science) A variable or memory location that stores a true-or-false, yes-or-no value, typically either recording the fact that a certain event has occurred or requesting that a certain optional action take place.

(computer science) In a command line interface, a command parameter requesting optional behavior or otherwise modifying the action of the command being invoked.

(aviation) A mechanical indicator that pops up to draw the pilot's attention to a problem or malfunction.

The game of capture the flag.

(geometry) A sequence of faces of a given polytope, one of each dimension up to that of the polytope (formally, though in practice not always explicitly, including the null face and the polytope itself), such that each face in the sequence is part of the next-higher dimension face.

A sequence of subspaces of a vector space, beginning with the null space and ending with the vector space itself, such that each member of the sequence (until the last) is a proper subspace of the next.

(television) A dark piece of material that can be mounted on a stand to block or shape the light.

An apron.

A plot or words of a character in an animation, etc., that would usually lead to a specific outcome or event, not logically or causally, but as a pattern of the animation, etc.

Any of various plants with sword-shaped leaves, especially irises; specifically, Iris pseudacorus.

A slice of turf; a sod.

A slab of stone; a flagstone, a flat piece of stone used for paving.

(geology) Any hard, evenly stratified sandstone, which splits into layers suitable for flagstones.

To furnish or deck out with flags.

To mark with a flag, especially to indicate the importance of something.

(often with down) To signal to, especially to stop a passing vehicle etc.

To convey (a message) by means of flag signals.

(often with up) To note, mark or point out for attention.

(computing) To signal (an event).

(computing) To set a program variable to true.

To decoy (game) by waving a flag, handkerchief, etc. to arouse the animal's curiosity.

(sports) To penalize for an infraction.

To lose on time, especially in a blitz game; when using a traditional analog chess clock, a flag would fall when time expired.

To defeat (an opponent) on time, especially in a blitz game.

(firearms) To point the muzzle of a firearm at a person or object one does not intend to fire on.

To fail, such as a class or an exam.

(intransitive) To weaken, become feeble.

To hang loose without stiffness; to bend down, as flexible bodies; to be loose, yielding, limp.

To let droop; to suffer to fall, or let fall, into feebleness.

To enervate; to exhaust the vigour or elasticity of.

(transitive) To pave with flagstones.

To hang loose without stiffness; to bend down, as flexible bodies; to be loose, yielding, limp.

To droop; to grow spiritless; to lose vigor; to languish; as, the spirits flag; the strength flags.

To let droop; to suffer to fall, or let fall, into feebleness; as, to flag the wings.

To enervate; to exhaust the vigor or elasticity of.

To signal to with a flag or by waving the hand; as, to flag a train; also used with down; as, to flag down a cab.

To convey, as a message, by means of flag signals; as, to flag an order to troops or vessels at a distance.

To decoy (game) by waving a flag, handkerchief, or the like to arouse the animal's curiosity.

To furnish or deck out with flags.

To lay with flags of flat stones.

That which flags or hangs down loosely.

A cloth usually bearing a device or devices and used to indicate nationality, party, etc., or to give or ask information; - commonly attached to a staff to be waved by the wind; a standard; a banner; an ensign; the colors; as, the national flag; a military or a naval flag.

A group of feathers on the lower part of the legs of certain hawks, owls, etc.

One of the wing feathers next the body of a bird; - called also flag feather.

An aquatic plant, with long, ensiform leaves, belonging to either of the genera Iris and Acorus.

A flat stone used for paving.

Any hard, evenly stratified sandstone, which splits into layers suitable for flagstones.

Emblem usually consisting of a rectangular piece of cloth of distinctive design

Plants with sword-shaped leaves and erect stalks bearing bright-colored flowers composed of three petals and three drooping sepals

A rectangular piece of fabric used as a signalling device

A listing printed in all issues of a newspaper or magazine (usually on the editorial page) that gives the name of the publication and the names of the editorial staff, etc.

Flagpole used to mark the position of the hole on a golf green

Stratified stone that splits into pieces suitable as paving stones

A conspicuously marked or shaped tail

Communicate or signal with a flag

Provide with a flag;

Droop, sink, or settle from or as if from pressure or loss of tautness

Decorate with flags;

Become less intense