launch
1 Americanverb (used with object)
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launches,
present (3rd person singular)
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launched,
past participle, past
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launching
present participle
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to set (a boat or ship) in the water.
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to float (a newly constructed boat or ship) usually by allowing to slide down inclined ways into the water.
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to send forth, catapult, or release, as a self-propelled vehicle or weapon.
Rockets were launched midway in the battle.
The submarine launched its torpedoes and dived rapidly.
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to start (a person) on a course, career, etc.
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to set going; initiate.
to launch a scheme.
- Synonyms:
- institute, inaugurate
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to launch a spear.
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to start (a new venture) or promote (a new product).
They launched a new breakfast cereal.
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Computers. to start (a software program).
verb (used without object)
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launches,
present (3rd person singular)
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launched,
past participle, past
-
launching
present participle
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to burst out or plunge boldly or directly into action, speech, etc.
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to start out or forth; push out or put forth on the water.
noun
noun
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a heavy open or half-decked boat propelled by oars or by an engine.
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a large utility boat carried by a warship.
verb
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to move (a vessel) into the water
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to move (a newly built vessel) into the water for the first time
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(tr)
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to start off or set in motion
to launch a scheme
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to put (a new product) on the market
-
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(tr) to propel with force
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to involve (oneself) totally and enthusiastically
to launch oneself into work
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(tr) to set (a missile, spacecraft, etc) into motion
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(tr) to catapult (an aircraft), as from the deck of an aircraft carrier
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to start talking or writing (about)
he launched into a story
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to start (out) on a fresh course
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informal to spend a lot of money
noun
noun
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a motor driven boat used chiefly as a transport boat
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the largest of the boats of a man-of-war
Usage
Where does launch come from? Rocket ships and medieval knights wouldn’t seem like they have a lot in common. We launch rocket ships into outer space—something those old knights, trotting around on horseback and wielding their lances, could hardly have ever imagined. Launch entered English around 1300–50. Back then, launch meant “to rush, spring (into motion), send forth, hurl (a weapon).” Launch comes from French, which in turn comes from Late Latin lanceāre, “to wield a lance.” This verb, lanceāre, is based on the Latin noun lancea, “lance, spear.” The Latin lancea may ultimately come from an ancient Celtic word. As you’ve probably guessed, the Latin lancea is the ultimate source of the English lance, originally “a long wooden shaft with a pointed metal head, used as a weapon by knights and cavalry soldiers in charging.” Slightly older than the verb launch, lance entered English around 1250–1300. Now, the Late Latin verb lanceāre also yields (through French) the English verb lance. Today, that verb is mainly used for actions of piercing and making incisions—much finer and more careful cuts, thankfully, than resulted from a knight’s lance. But in the early 1300s, lance was effectively a synonym for launch, also meaning “to throw or hurl.”Dig deeperWhen did we start saying we launched such things as boats? That sense of launch is so far first evidenced, as it happens, during the heydey of knights launching lances. This sense of launch, meaning “to a set (a boat or ship) in the water,” is recorded in the Alliterative Morte Arthure, a remarkable poem about that legendary leader of knights, King Arthur, dated to around 1400. The basic, underlying sense of launch (“to send forth”) has inspired many other metaphorical extensions, from launching careers and launching products to book launches, campaign launches, and, by the time we entered the Space Age, rocket launches.
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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launchsimple
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launchessimple
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have launchedperfect
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has launchedperfect
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am launchingprogressive
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are launchingprogressive
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is launchingprogressive
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have been launchingperfect progressive
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has been launchingperfect progressive
Past
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launchedsimple
-
had launchedperfect
-
was launchingprogressive
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were launchingprogressive
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had been launchingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of launch1
First recorded in 1300–50; late Middle English launche, from Anglo-French lancher, from Late Latin lanceāre “to wield a lance”; see lance 1
Origin of launch2
First recorded in 1690–1700; from Spanish, Portuguese lancha, earlier Portuguese lanchara, first attested in 1515 in an account of boats encountered near the Strait of Malacca; further origin uncertain; perhaps from Malay lancharan, derivative of lanchar “swift,” unless modern Malay lancha is from Portuguese
Explanation
To launch something is to propel it or get it going, usually from a standing position. You can launch a rocket, a career, a product or even a watermelon. Either way, you're getting it off the ground. Launch often means to start something, but to start it in a big way: "The launch of the shuttle was also the launch of a new era in space travel." Time was, when a singer finished making her record, the company would simply "release it." Eventually, though, that wasn't enough. Now a record needs "a launch" — a full-scale media blitz to get people excited enough to buy it.
Vocabulary lists containing launch
The SAT: Multiple-Meaning Words, List 7
Looking to grow your vocabulary? Check out this interactive, curated word list from our team of English language specialists at Vocabulary.com – one of over 17,000 lists we've built to help learners worldwide!
The New SAT: Multiple-Meaning Words
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The ACT Reading Test: Multiple-Meaning Words, List 7
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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.
See Examples For:
She says the experience helped her launch a career in acting.
From BBC ● Aug. 23, 2026
Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney's strategy involves a search for new markets, a focus on domestic trade and the launch of major projects.
From Barron's ● Aug. 22, 2026
Zydus Lifesciences can launch its generic indocyanine green product following approval by the U.S.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 21, 2026
Murdoch even owned the Dodgers for a stretch to corner the market on what was then a Wild West shoot-out among TV programmers to launch cable channels.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 21, 2026
At fifteen minutes to takeoff, they paused again to wait for clouds over the launch site to float past.
From "Fallout: Spies, Superbombs, and the Ultimate Cold War Showdown" by Steve Sheinkin
The unveiling of the Luce was seen as one of the biggest launches of a new car in recent years.
From BBC ● Aug. 17, 2026
In Boca Chica, a group of residents has sued SpaceX, claiming the company’s rocket launches have cracked their homes’ foundations and caused structural issues.
From MarketWatch ● Aug. 17, 2026
The dweeb so desperately wanted to be a superhero that he launches a war against real ones in order to turn their powers into weapons he then sells to a gullible public.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 15, 2026
Prototypes of the missile, the FP-5, were painted in bright colors so their debris was easy to find after launches.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 15, 2026
When we were brought up upon the deck, we saw in ruddy first light the motion of countless launches all around us proceeding to the shore of the island.
From "The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing, Traitor to the Nation, Volume II: The Kingdom on the Waves" by M.T. Anderson
Good Good was launched as a YouTube channel in 2020 and has become one of the largest content creators in golf.
From BBC ● Aug. 23, 2026
The Bioloon is the result of a public-private partnership launched by Charlotte Melia, an events entrepreneur, who describes herself as environmentally minded.
From Barron's ● Aug. 23, 2026
That ship is the upper stage of SpaceX’s Starship rocket, which the company launched from Texas late last month.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 22, 2026
Stone Brewing, launched in 1996 in San Marcos by Greg Koch and Steve Wagner, was the poster child of the West Coast craft brewing boom of the 2000s and 2010s.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 21, 2026
On August 31, 1939, the SS dressed in Polish uniforms and launched a fake attack on a German radio station in Gleiwitz, in Upper Silesia, in southwest Poland.
From "Hitler Youth: Growing Up in Hitler's Shadow" by Susan Campbell Bartoletti
Ukraine's military on Saturday said it was launching a new campaign targeting the company.
From Barron's ● Aug. 23, 2026
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said Friday it was launching the probe into vehicles equipped with a particular GM V-8 engine that had already been the subject of an earlier recall.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 21, 2026
Banca Monte dei Paschi di Siena is launching all-share bids for Italian peers Banco BPM and Banca Generali valued at 34.02 billion euros.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 21, 2026
Walmart has leaned heavily on price cuts to retain customers, launching 11,000 of its so-called "rollbacks" across categories.
From BBC ● Aug. 20, 2026
Most of the Housatonic’s 155 crewmembers saved themselves by launching lifeboats or by climbing into the ship’s rigging, which towered safely above the harbor’s shallow twenty-seven-foot depth.
From "Shipwrecked!" by Martin W. Sandler
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.
