flagship

American  

[flag-ship] / ˈflægˌʃɪp /

noun

flagships plural

1. a ship carrying the flag officer or the commander of a fleet, squadron, or the like, and displaying the officer's flag.

2. the main vessel of a shipping company.

3. any of the best or largest ships or airplanes operated by a passenger line.

4. the best or most important one of a group or system.

   This store is the flagship of our retail chain.

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adjective

1. being or constituting a flagship.

flagship British  

/ ˈflæɡˌʃɪp /

noun

1. a ship, esp in a fleet, aboard which the commander of the fleet is quartered

2. the most important ship belonging to a shipping company

3. a single item from a related group considered as the most important, often in establishing a public image

   the nine o'clock news is the flagship of the BBC

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Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• flagships
  plural

Etymology

Origin of flagship

First recorded in 1665–75; flag ¹ + ship ¹

Explanation

Traditionally, the commander of a navy traveled in the flagship, which was distinguished by flying his distinctive flag. You can also call the ship in the front of a fleet the flagship. The flagship is generally the most powerful in some way — better armed, or larger, than the ships that follow it. Ultimately, the most important thing about a flagship is that it's first. Based on this meaning, another kind of flagship is something that's the first, best, or biggest example of something — a product, store, or program, for example. Starbucks' enormous flagship coffee shop, the company's largest and fanciest shop, is in Seattle, Washington.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

flagship flagships

Siegel said he will open a flagship location in Las Vegas and expand into other markets while keeping a strong presence in the Golden State.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 22, 2026

The findings were published in the American Heart Association's flagship peer-reviewed journal Circulation in the scientific statement "Caffeine and Cardiovascular Disease."

From Science Daily ● Jul. 22, 2026

Stourton became a presenter of the flagship Today programme in 1999, where his immense experience as a foreign correspondent served him well while reporting from countries such as Lebanon and Afghanistan.

From BBC ● Jul. 20, 2026

The Gulf state’s flagship AI firm can freely buy chips and has a plan to become a U.S. company.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 18, 2026

William ended up at the Army’s flagship medical center, Walter Reed General Hospital.

From "The Woman All Spies Fear" by Amy Butler Greenfield

Once completed, Trump said the armed vessels would be equipped to carry hypersonic and "extremely lethal" weapons, and would be the flagships of the US Navy.

From BBC ● Dec. 22, 2025

The first of Beccari’s “retail-tainment” flagships for Louis Vuitton opened in Bangkok last March.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Dec. 20, 2025

From glamorous flagships like the Ace Hotel to locals-only dives like Hank’s, downtown has lost a lot of the places that made it such a compelling place to live and party.

From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 10, 2025

As many reports have pointed out, PBS and NPR, along with their news flagships, “PBS NewsHour” and “All Things Considered,” will not disappear.

From Salon ● Aug. 6, 2025

The two flagships remained thus over three hours more, besides the two during which they had already been together.

From The Philippine Islands, 1493-1898 — Volume 11 of 55 1599-1602 Explorations by Early Navigators, Descriptions of the Islands and Their Peoples, Their History and Records of the Catholic Missions, as Related in Contemporaneous Books and Manuscripts, Showing the Political, Economic, Commercial and Religious Conditions of Those Islands from Their Earliest Relations with European Nations to the Close of the Nineteenth Century by Robertson, James Alexander

Related Words

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