battleship
Americannoun
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any of a class of warships that are the most heavily armored and are equipped with the most powerful armament.
noun
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a heavily armoured warship of the largest type having many large-calibre guns
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(formerly) a warship of sufficient size and armament to take her place in the line of battle; ship of the line
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of battleship
Compare meaning
How does battleship compare to similar and commonly confused words? Explore the most common comparisons:
Explanation
A battleship is a very large, seagoing military vessel. A battleship is prepared for war, being protected by heavy armor and equipped with guns. Today's modern military doesn't often use battleships — you're more likely to find a battleship in a harbor being explored by tourists. In the 19th and early 20th centuries, battleships were the most modern, powerful kind of boat on the water, and they were used during both World Wars by various countries' navies. The game Battleship, which shares a name with these warships, has been around in one form or another since the 1930s.
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.
See Examples For:
The battleship was supplanted as king of the seas in the 1940s by the aircraft carrier.
From Barron's ● Jun. 5, 2026
“I think we’re trying to understand all the proper trade offs, and then think about it as a battleship strike group and a carrier strike group.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 12, 2026
Navy decommissioned its last battleship in 1992, after the military recognized that battleships had become sitting ducks, vulnerable to modern military munitions that could pick off the vessel from the sky.
From Salon ● May 8, 2026
Her comments come as the US moves a second battleship into the region, and one day after progress was reported at US-Iran talks in Switzerland.
From BBC ● Feb. 18, 2026
Standing on the deck of the battleship USS Arizona, a sailor named George Phraner had the same thought.
From "Bomb" by Steve Sheinkin
However, Woodburn said there was still a role for the traditional battleships and submarines that BAE has been manufacturing for decades.
From BBC ● Jul. 23, 2026
FDR’s “arsenal of democracy” produced External link 10 battleships, 27 carriers, 211 submarines, and 310,000 aircraft to help win the war and establish Pax Americana.
From Barron's ● Jun. 5, 2026
Hegseth and Trump were frustrated by his lack of progress in implementing shipbuilding reforms to create Trump’s so-called “Golden Fleet,” led by the theoretical new “Trump-class” battleships.
From Salon ● May 1, 2026
The new ones are “100 times more powerful” than the legendary battleships of World War II, which he went on to name—the Missouri, the Iowa, the Alabama.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jan. 22, 2026
The President Adams was still a few miles out from land, following the battleships and minesweepers that went ahead of us to enter the bay.
From "Code Talker: A Novel About the Navajo Marines of World War Two" by Joseph Bruchac
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.
