container ship

American  

[kuhn-tey-ner ship] / kənˈteɪ nər ˌʃɪp /

Or containership

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.

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Etymology

Origin of container ship

First recorded in 1955–60

Example Sentences

DBS economists expect export growth to accelerate to 8.4% in April from 2.5% in March, noting that container ship deadweight tonnage at 20 major ports rose during the period.

From The Wall Street Journal • May 1, 2026

The closure of the Strait of Hormuz as well as tensions in the Red Sea are reshaping trade routes, with Africa becoming a hub of global container ship traffic, according to logistics and maritime sources.

From Barron's • May 1, 2026

They identified the vessels as the Panama-flagged container ship MSC Francesca and the Liberia-flagged Epaminondas.

From Barron's • Apr. 23, 2026

From there, one day a week, a large container ship departs on the 3,000-mile journey to Poole in Dorset.

From BBC • Feb. 18, 2026

My father had told us about the actual, real-life Grande Gongo, a cutting-edge container ship docked in Korea and flying the Italian flag.

From "Confessions of a Murder Suspect" by James Patterson