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

Goldenvoice’s new flagship Westside festival, with the Killers and Olivia Dean playing Sept. 26-27, is a bold and potentially groundbreaking concert that will reintroduce the pricey beachside city to music fans used to going east.

From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 2, 2026

Gemini 4, the company’s next planned flagship model, has performed well on pretraining evaluations but still needs to complete posttraining, according to the people.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 1, 2026

NASA's Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope is now just two days from launch, marking the arrival of the agency's next flagship astrophysics mission after the James Webb Space Telescope.

From Science Daily ● Aug. 28, 2026

Only a single still-frame shot has been broadcast so far by the country's state-run flagship news bulletin.

From BBC ● Aug. 28, 2026

And, after waiting for a favorable wind, the flagship, commanded by Vice Admiral George Carew, sailed proudly out of its berth, prepared for battle.

From "Shipwrecked!" by Martin W. Sandler

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

Browne, the fashion designer known for his shrunken suiting, recently opened two new stores on the Upper East Side, joining other labels like Khaite, Toteme, Kallmeyer and Ulla Johnson, which all had flagships downtown first.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 15, 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

However, a new study argues that individual animals or plants can also be used as flagships, with enormous potential to raise awareness and mobilise public support.

From Science Daily ● Oct. 12, 2023

Their respective Admirals fired their severest broadsides into each other, and the bombardment of the forts was silenced by the smart interchange of nautical civilities between the two flagships.

From The Crime Against Europe A Possible Outcome of the War of 1914 by Roger Casement

Related Words

• bellwether
• crown jewel