flagship

American  

[flag-ship] / ˈflægˌʃɪp /

noun

1. a ship carrying the flag officer or the commander of a fleet, squadron, or the like, and displaying the officer's flag.

2. the main vessel of a shipping company.

3. any of the best or largest ships or airplanes operated by a passenger line.

4. the best or most important one of a group or system.

   This store is the flagship of our retail chain.

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adjective

1. being or constituting a flagship.

flagship British  

/ ˈflæɡˌʃɪp /

noun

1. a ship, esp in a fleet, aboard which the commander of the fleet is quartered

2. the most important ship belonging to a shipping company

3. a single item from a related group considered as the most important, often in establishing a public image

   the nine o'clock news is the flagship of the BBC

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Etymology

Origin of flagship

First recorded in 1665–75; flag ¹ + ship ¹

Explanation

Traditionally, the commander of a navy traveled in the flagship, which was distinguished by flying his distinctive flag. You can also call the ship in the front of a fleet the flagship. The flagship is generally the most powerful in some way — better armed, or larger, than the ships that follow it. Ultimately, the most important thing about a flagship is that it's first. Based on this meaning, another kind of flagship is something that's the first, best, or biggest example of something — a product, store, or program, for example. Starbucks' enormous flagship coffee shop, the company's largest and fanciest shop, is in Seattle, Washington.

Example Sentences

Last Thursday, Alibaba released Qwen3.6-Plus, the latest version of its flagship large language model series, with a focus on its ability to write computer code.

From Barron's • Apr. 8, 2026

In late March, the Times followed up the story by devoting a full episode of its flagship podcast, The Daily, to Clavicular and his community.

From Salon • Apr. 6, 2026

Project Maven is the Pentagon's flagship artificial intelligence program, launched in 2017 as a narrow experiment to help military analysts make sense of the torrent of drone footage pouring in from conflict zones.

From Barron's • Apr. 5, 2026

Sales of the Zeekr 9X flagship SUV reached 22,035 units in 1Q 2026, thanks to its strong order backlog of 11 to 14 weeks, he adds.

From The Wall Street Journal • Apr. 3, 2026

Reverend Hunt returns and tells us we’ll be passengers on the flagship, the Susan Constant, A breeze picks up.

From "Blood on the River" by Elisa Carbone

Related Words

• bellwether
• crown jewel