spaceship

American  

[speys-ship] / ˈspeɪsˌʃɪp /

noun

1. spacecraft.

---

spaceship British  

/ ˈspeɪsˌʃɪp /

noun

1. a manned spacecraft

---

Etymology

Origin of spaceship

First recorded in 1940–45; space + ship ¹

Explanation

A vehicle that travels outside the earth's atmosphere is a spaceship. If you want to walk around on the moon some day, you'll have to get there in a spaceship. Any craft that carries people or equipment through space is a spaceship, though you could also call it a "rocket ship." Traveling through the universe, far from Earth or just outside its atmosphere, definitely requires a spaceship. Spaceship was originally borrowed from 19th- and 20th-century science fiction, and even today the term is considered less scientific than spacecraft or space vehicle.

Example Sentences

The Amazon MGM film, which stars Ryan Gosling as a teacher-turned-astronaut who awakes on a spaceship with a mission to save Earth from a dimming sun, has earned nearly $257 million in total domestically.

From Barron's • Apr. 12, 2026

The spaceship will actually swing around the Moon without entering its orbit by following a carefully planned trajectory.

From Barron's • Apr. 5, 2026

Growing up in rural Canada, he turned his treehouse into an imaginary spaceship after seeing a photograph of Buzz Aldrin standing on the lunar surface.

From BBC • Mar. 30, 2026

We learn all of this via flashbacks interspersed throughout the present-day trials of Dr. Grace after he wakes up, clueless, on a spaceship extremely far from home.

From The Wall Street Journal • Mar. 18, 2026

Radio waves travel at the speed of light, 10,000 times faster than a message attached to our fastest interstellar spaceship.

From "Cosmos" by Carl Sagan

Related Words

• booster
• firework
• intercontinental ballistic missile
• missile
• spacecraft
• torpedo
• weapon