launch
1 Americanverb (used with object)
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to set (a boat or ship) in the water.
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to float (a newly constructed boat or ship) usually by allowing to slide down inclined ways into the water.
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to send forth, catapult, or release, as a self-propelled vehicle or weapon.
Rockets were launched midway in the battle.
The submarine launched its torpedoes and dived rapidly.
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to start (a person) on a course, career, etc.
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to set going; initiate.
to launch a scheme.
- Synonyms:
- institute, inaugurate
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to launch a spear.
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to start (a new venture) or promote (a new product).
They launched a new breakfast cereal.
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Computers. to start (a software program).
verb (used without object)
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to burst out or plunge boldly or directly into action, speech, etc.
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to start out or forth; push out or put forth on the water.
noun
noun
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a heavy open or half-decked boat propelled by oars or by an engine.
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a large utility boat carried by a warship.
verb
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to move (a vessel) into the water
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to move (a newly built vessel) into the water for the first time
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(tr)
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to start off or set in motion
to launch a scheme
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to put (a new product) on the market
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(tr) to propel with force
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to involve (oneself) totally and enthusiastically
to launch oneself into work
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(tr) to set (a missile, spacecraft, etc) into motion
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(tr) to catapult (an aircraft), as from the deck of an aircraft carrier
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to start talking or writing (about)
he launched into a story
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to start (out) on a fresh course
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informal to spend a lot of money
noun
noun
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a motor driven boat used chiefly as a transport boat
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the largest of the boats of a man-of-war
Usage
Where does launch come from? Rocket ships and medieval knights wouldn’t seem like they have a lot in common. We launch rocket ships into outer space—something those old knights, trotting around on horseback and wielding their lances, could hardly have ever imagined. Launch entered English around 1300–50. Back then, launch meant “to rush, spring (into motion), send forth, hurl (a weapon).” Launch comes from French, which in turn comes from Late Latin lanceāre, “to wield a lance.” This verb, lanceāre, is based on the Latin noun lancea, “lance, spear.” The Latin lancea may ultimately come from an ancient Celtic word. As you’ve probably guessed, the Latin lancea is the ultimate source of the English lance, originally “a long wooden shaft with a pointed metal head, used as a weapon by knights and cavalry soldiers in charging.” Slightly older than the verb launch, lance entered English around 1250–1300. Now, the Late Latin verb lanceāre also yields (through French) the English verb lance. Today, that verb is mainly used for actions of piercing and making incisions—much finer and more careful cuts, thankfully, than resulted from a knight’s lance. But in the early 1300s, lance was effectively a synonym for launch, also meaning “to throw or hurl.”Dig deeperWhen did we start saying we launched such things as boats? That sense of launch is so far first evidenced, as it happens, during the heydey of knights launching lances. This sense of launch, meaning “to a set (a boat or ship) in the water,” is recorded in the Alliterative Morte Arthure, a remarkable poem about that legendary leader of knights, King Arthur, dated to around 1400. The basic, underlying sense of launch (“to send forth”) has inspired many other metaphorical extensions, from launching careers and launching products to book launches, campaign launches, and, by the time we entered the Space Age, rocket launches.
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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launchsimple
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launchessimple
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have launchedperfect
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has launchedperfect
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am launchingprogressive
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are launchingprogressive
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is launchingprogressive
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have been launchingperfect progressive
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has been launchingperfect progressive
Past
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launchedsimple
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had launchedperfect
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was launchingprogressive
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were launchingprogressive
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had been launchingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of launch1
First recorded in 1300–50; late Middle English launche, from Anglo-French lancher, from Late Latin lanceāre “to wield a lance”; see lance 1
Origin of launch2
First recorded in 1690–1700; from Spanish, Portuguese lancha, earlier Portuguese lanchara, first attested in 1515 in an account of boats encountered near the Strait of Malacca; further origin uncertain; perhaps from Malay lancharan, derivative of lanchar “swift,” unless modern Malay lancha is from Portuguese
Explanation
To launch something is to propel it or get it going, usually from a standing position. You can launch a rocket, a career, a product or even a watermelon. Either way, you're getting it off the ground. Launch often means to start something, but to start it in a big way: "The launch of the shuttle was also the launch of a new era in space travel." Time was, when a singer finished making her record, the company would simply "release it." Eventually, though, that wasn't enough. Now a record needs "a launch" — a full-scale media blitz to get people excited enough to buy it.
Vocabulary lists containing launch
The SAT: Multiple-Meaning Words, List 7
Looking to grow your vocabulary? Check out this interactive, curated word list from our team of English language specialists at Vocabulary.com – one of over 17,000 lists we've built to help learners worldwide!
The New SAT: Multiple-Meaning Words
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The ACT Reading Test: Multiple-Meaning Words, List 7
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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:
“Friday’s Starship launch was a key step toward that goal,” Harned added.
From MarketWatch ● Jul. 27, 2026
After a recent rebranding, the Phoenix school Tyson helped launch is now simply called ELEV8.
From Salon ● Jul. 27, 2026
Towering over the launch field in full Highland dress, the Scottish Piper has been turning heads since 1997.
From BBC ● Jul. 27, 2026
The latest launch for the experimental rocket is the first since Elon Musk’s rocket company went public in a historic IPO.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 26, 2026
Supposedly Thomas had wanted to color, but I’d insisted that we launch my new rocket instead.
From "Sir Fig Newton and the Science of Persistence" by Sonja Thomas
Space Force contract, its largest agreement to date, for up to 18 suborbital launches that will support missile defense capabilities.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 27, 2026
After Blue Origin completes its rendezvous and docking tests, and after the Artemis III crew launches aboard SLS, SpaceX will send its Starship test article into orbit.
From Science Daily ● Jul. 23, 2026
This week’s Amicus also launches their first installment of By the People, in which Dahlia Lithwick and Mark Joseph Stern explore how and when the idea of judicial supremacy took over.
From Slate ● Jul. 23, 2026
A butterfly charity says the UK could be set for a "bumper" year of the insects as it launches its annual appeal for the public to count them.
From BBC ● Jul. 19, 2026
The band launches into victory music and the crowd goes wild.
From "Water for Elephants" by Sara Gruen
No group claimed responsibility, but Riyadh called on Baghdad to prevent such attacks from being launched from its territory.
From Barron's ● Jul. 27, 2026
On Friday, Elon Musk’s space-technology company launched its megarocket for the 13th time, after a handful of delays had pushed the mission back by about a week.
From MarketWatch ● Jul. 27, 2026
Peacock, which launched in 2020, grew its paid subscribers by 4% to 48 million in the second quarter, compared to the first quarter.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 27, 2026
That same year, Asian Network went national, and Desi DNA launched soon after.
From BBC ● Jul. 26, 2026
The Widow Ashton adjusted her pince-nez and launched into her tale.
From "The Unseen Guest" by Maryrose Wood
Riyadh demanded in a statement that Iraq take “all necessary measures to ensure the prevention of the use of its territory as a launching point” for attacks.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 27, 2026
A cynic might say that the short life of Winkleman's series will have shown both her and the BBC that launching a new chat show is harder than it looks.
From BBC ● Jul. 24, 2026
The lunar lander will be placed in orbit first, where it will wait for the astronauts arriving aboard Orion after launching on SLS.
From Science Daily ● Jul. 23, 2026
Boeing hinted this week that a tough financial situation at the group was not the primary obstacle to launching a new programme.
From Barron's ● Jul. 23, 2026
Most of the Housatonic’s 155 crewmembers saved themselves by launching lifeboats or by climbing into the ship’s rigging, which towered safely above the harbor’s shallow twenty-seven-foot depth.
From "Shipwrecked!" by Martin W. Sandler
Definitions 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.
