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
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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:
New DoT rules will make it easier to increase space launch cadence.
From Barron's ● Oct. 7, 2026
That was one of the key takeaways from a preview event and launch party that the WSJ Leadership Institute’s Katie Deighton attended in New York on Tuesday.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 7, 2026
Ives now is a partner and senior managing director at merchant bank Yorkville Ives, which he helped launch earlier this year.
From MarketWatch ● Oct. 7, 2026
Researchers posing as teenagers with San Francisco Bay Area-based accounts tested more than 4,000 prompts before and after the launch of ChatGPT for Teens.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 7, 2026
Korolev walked alongside the train tracks as the flatcar moved slowly, gently, from the hangar to the launch pad.
From "Fallout: Spies, Superbombs, and the Ultimate Cold War Showdown" by Steve Sheinkin
In the essay Robinson said his credentials include overseeing the writing of safety reports on 12 advanced model product launches and leading the drafting of OpenAI's Preparedness Framework.
From Barron's ● Oct. 3, 2026
Rocket Lab secures 20 additional launches for Synspective, while Citi initiates coverage with a Buy rating and $105 price target.
From Barron's ● Oct. 1, 2026
Dr Peter Walsh, a senior researcher at the University of Oxford's Migration Observatory, says it is highly plausible that the new routes are due to police disrupting boat launches in northern France.
From BBC ● Sep. 29, 2026
A big chunk would emerge from demand for rocket launches, the documents say.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 24, 2026
And it must be, because he launches forward, wrapping his arms around my torso in a rib-crushing hug.
From "The Sea in Winter" by Christine Day
Two dense metal satellites launched in 1976 and 1992 were built specifically for that purpose.
From Science Daily ● Oct. 7, 2026
Months later, it launched its service in the United States, offering some 300,000 titles for purchase.
From Barron's ● Oct. 7, 2026
The outperforming Tactical Trend fund that was launched in 2006, accounts for $4 billion of the total.
From MarketWatch ● Oct. 7, 2026
It opened a new 38,000- square-foot flight training center in Dubai, signed a deal with Boeing to provide in-house flight training and last year launched a new cadet program to train foreign pilots.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 7, 2026
After they quickly reached the summit and then went up and over the hill, it was as if Duane had been launched into space.
From "The Very, Very Far North" by Dan Bar-el
He was given the nod for launching the IceCube Neutrino Observatory in Antarctica and the discovery of high-energy neutrinos from outer space.
From Barron's ● Oct. 7, 2026
The family of a teenager killed in a car crash near Stirling two years ago are launching a civil case against the driver who was cleared of causing death by careless driving.
From BBC ● Oct. 4, 2026
There are many exemptions, including for firms with 15 or fewer clients or those launching proprietary trading shops and not accepting client money.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 3, 2026
Since then, fighting has intensified with the Houthis launching a lightning offensive in which they seized control of coastal regions along the Bab al-Mandab strait.
From Barron's ● Oct. 3, 2026
I started to think about what an adventure it would be to work for him, helping him to build rockets and launching them into space.
From "October Sky" by Homer Hickam
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.
