dinghy
Americannoun
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any small boat designed as a tender or lifeboat, especially a small ship's boat, rowed, sailed, or driven by a motor.
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a boat used by warships, having four single-banked oars and a spritsail.
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any of various rowing or sailing boats used in sheltered waters along the Indian coasts to transport passengers and freight.
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an inflatable life raft.
noun
verb
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of dinghy
1785–95; < Bengali diṅgi, Hindi ḍiṅgī, diminutive of ḍiṅgā boat
Explanation
A long journey by sea requires a large ship, but if you’re out for an afternoon on the pond, you may want to take the dinghy, a small boat. A dinghy, pronounced "DING-ee," is a lifeboat found on board of a ship in case of emergency, but it can also be a rowboat used for fishing or just relaxing out on the water. The unusual spelling of this word reflects its exotic origins, in the Hindi word ḍiṅgī. Be sure to remember to include the silent “h” when you spell dinghy.
Vocabulary lists containing dinghy
Seas The Day: Words That Shore Are Beachy
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Vocabulary from news articles about rescued teenage sailor
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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.
Chinese dissident Dong Guangping reached South Korea in a rubber dinghy after a 30-hour journey, facing immigration charges.
From The Wall Street Journal • May 28, 2026
Tajik Mohammad, 32, had been piloting an overcrowded dinghy across the English Channel in poor weather conditions on 17 January.
From BBC • Apr. 21, 2026
Russian rapper Yegor Krid dialed a friend as he relaxed on a floating dinghy in a music clip released last year.
From The Wall Street Journal • Apr. 1, 2026
Survivors told IOM that the rubber dinghy had departed at around 23:00 local time from al-Zawiya, west of Tripoli.
From BBC • Feb. 9, 2026
In the final stretch, when land is within reach and people are running toward us, our dinghy flips over entirely.
From "Without Refuge" by Jane Mitchell
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.
