battleship
Americannoun
-
battleships
plural
-
any of a class of warships that are the most heavily armored and are equipped with the most powerful armament.
noun
-
a heavily armoured warship of the largest type having many large-calibre guns
-
(formerly) a warship of sufficient size and armament to take her place in the line of battle; ship of the line
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of battleship
Compare meaning
How does battleship compare to similar and commonly confused words? Explore the most common comparisons:
Explanation
A battleship is a very large, seagoing military vessel. A battleship is prepared for war, being protected by heavy armor and equipped with guns. Today's modern military doesn't often use battleships — you're more likely to find a battleship in a harbor being explored by tourists. In the 19th and early 20th centuries, battleships were the most modern, powerful kind of boat on the water, and they were used during both World Wars by various countries' navies. The game Battleship, which shares a name with these warships, has been around in one form or another since the 1930s.
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
The battleship was supplanted as king of the seas in the 1940s by the aircraft carrier.
From Barron's ● Jun. 5, 2026
“I think the battleship is sort of an exogenous introduction that reflects, you know, what Secretary Phelan and the president wanted to do, rather than what the analysis shows,” Clark said.
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 12, 2026
Navy decommissioned its last battleship in 1992, after the military recognized that battleships had become sitting ducks, vulnerable to modern military munitions that could pick off the vessel from the sky.
From Salon ● May 8, 2026
Trump said at a news conference announcing the battleship that the construction of the first of the vessels, the USS Defiant, would begin soon, with the first ships operational in two-and-a-half years.
From BBC ● Apr. 3, 2026
That September, while I was dreaming about babies, a German battleship opened fire on Polish troops.
From "Reaching for the Moon" by Katherine Johnson
However, Woodburn said there was still a role for the traditional battleships and submarines that BAE has been manufacturing for decades.
From BBC ● Jul. 23, 2026
FDR’s “arsenal of democracy” produced External link 10 battleships, 27 carriers, 211 submarines, and 310,000 aircraft to help win the war and establish Pax Americana.
From Barron's ● Jun. 5, 2026
Navy decommissioned its last battleship in 1992, after the military recognized that battleships had become sitting ducks, vulnerable to modern military munitions that could pick off the vessel from the sky.
From Salon ● May 8, 2026
It’s unusual for a man to be surprised that modern battleships are more advanced than ones decommissioned decades ago, but more interesting was his engagement in what he was saying.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jan. 22, 2026
A long snowfield lay between them and the next gap, and on crossing it they discovered a crevasse so deep that “two battleships could have been hidden in it,” as Worsley said.
From "Shipwreck at the Bottom of the World" by Jennifer Armstrong
Random Word
Spin the wheel and learn a new word!
Get a wordDefinitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
