container ship

or con·tain·er·ship

[ kuhn-tey-ner ship ]

noun

, Transportation.

1. a large ship that transports its cargo in truck-size containers that can be transferred from ship to train to truck without unloading and reloading the contents:

   Container ships may be a common sight today, but the arrival of the first American ones in European ports made headlines in the shipping journals of the time.

Word History and Origins

Origin of container ship¹

First recorded in 1955–60

Example Sentences

Almost everything you own and consume came to you via a container ship, but we know almost nothing about the industry.

From The Daily Beast