Standard Lemma guide

battleship

noun · 6 senses · updated from the 2026-07-25 local source snapshot

Definitions and examples are grouped by meaning. Pronunciation, history, word forms, translations, descendants, synonyms, antonyms, derived terms, and related words appear whenever the source provides them.

Sound

Pronunciation

Each Play button uses your device's default local English voice, or a natural local fallback. The selected voice name appears after playback. This is synthesized speech, not a source recording.

  • General-American: /ˈbætəlˌʃɪp/
  • US: Recorded audio is listed in the source snapshot.
  • CMU ARPABET: B AE1 T AH0 L SH IH2 P Digits mark lexical stress: 1 primary, 2 secondary, 0 unstressed.

1

noun

Meaning 1

A large capital warship displacing thousands to tens of thousands of tons, heavily armoured and armed with large-caliber guns; now obsolescent and replaced by smaller vessels with guided missiles.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Topics: government, military, nautical, politics, transport, war

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

Broader terms: ship, watercraft, vessel, vehicle

2

noun

Meaning 2

A starship of comparable role.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: broadly

Topics: literature, media, publishing, science-fiction

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

3

noun

Meaning 3

A ship of the line.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: archaic

Topics: government, military, nautical, politics, transport, war

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

Broader terms: ship, watercraft, vessel, vehicle

4

noun

Meaning 4

A non-functional rocket stage, used for configuration and integration tests.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

5

noun

Meaning 5

A guessing game played on grid paper or a gameboard inspired by it.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

Broader terms: guessing game, game, diversion

6

noun

Meaning 6

large and heavily armoured warship

Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: battlewagon

Antonyms: none provided

Broader terms: warship, war vessel, combat ship

Narrower terms: dreadnought, dreadnaught, pocket battleship

History

Etymology

From battle + ship; shortened from line-of-battle ship, attested 1794.

Across languages

Translations

66 source translations are retained for this English entry.

  • Azerbaijani: döyüş gəmisi — warship
  • Catalan: cuirassat — warship
  • Chinese Cantonese: 戰艦 /战舰 (zin3 laam6) — warship
  • Hakka Chinese: 戰艦 /战舰 (chan-kam) — warship
  • Chinese: 戰艦 /战舰 (zh-min-nan) — warship
  • Chinese Mandarin: 戰艦 /战舰 (zhànjiàn) — warship
  • Chinese Mandarin: 戰列艦 /战列舰 (zhànlièjiàn) — warship
  • Czech: bitevní loď — warship
  • Danish: slagskib — warship
  • Dutch: slagschip — warship
  • Esperanto: batalŝipo — warship
  • Estonian: lahingulaev — warship
  • Faroese: herskip — warship
  • Faroese: krígsskip — warship
  • Finnish: taistelulaiva — warship
  • French: cuirassé — warship
  • Georgian: საბრძოლო გემი (sabrʒolo gemi) — warship
  • Georgian: საბრძოლო ხომალდი (sabrʒolo xomaldi) — warship
  • Georgian: სახაზო გემი (saxazo gemi) — warship
  • Georgian: ჯავშნოსანი (ǯavšnosani) — warship
  • Greek: θωρηκτό (thoriktó) — warship
  • Hebrew: אֳנִיַּת מַעֲרָכָה (oniyat ma'arakha) — warship
  • Hindi: युद्धपोत (yuddhapot) — warship
  • Hungarian: csatahajó — warship
  • Ido: kurasonavo — warship
  • Italian: corazzata — warship
  • Italian: nave corazzata — warship
  • Japanese: 戦艦 (senkan) — warship
  • Korean: 전함 (jeonham) — warship
  • Malayalam: യുദ്ധക്കപ്പൽ (yuddhakkappal) — warship
  • Malayalam: പടക്കപ്പൽ (paṭakkappal) — warship
  • Navajo: tsin naaʼeeł bee daʼahijighánígíí — warship
  • Norwegian Bokmål: slagskip — warship
  • Norwegian Nynorsk: slagskip — warship
  • Persian: نبردناو (nabard-nâv) — warship
  • Polish: pancernik — warship
  • Portuguese: couraçado — warship
  • Portuguese: encouraçado — warship
  • Slovak: bitevná loď — warship
  • Slovene: bojna ladja — warship
  • Spanish: acorazado — warship
  • Swedish: slagskepp — warship
  • Tagalog: bapor-pandigma — warship
  • Turkish: savaş gemisi — warship
  • Volapük: bländanaf — warship
  • Volapük: lekomipanaf — warship
  • Chinese Mandarin: 海戰 /海战 (hǎizhàn) — guessing game
  • Czech: lodě — guessing game
  • Danish: sænke slagskibe — guessing game
  • Dutch: zeeslag — guessing game
  • Esperanto: marbatalo — guessing game
  • Finnish: laivanupotus — guessing game
  • Finnish: laivastopeli — guessing game
  • French: bataille navale — guessing game
  • German: Schiffe versenken — guessing game
  • Greek: ναυμαχία (navmachía) — guessing game
  • Hungarian: torpedó — guessing game
  • Italian: battaglia navale — guessing game
  • Japanese: 海戦ゲーム (kaisen gēmu) — guessing game
  • Korean: 배틀십 (baeteulsip) — guessing game
  • Polish: okręty — guessing game
  • Polish: statki — guessing game
  • Portuguese: batalha naval — guessing game
  • Russian: морско́й бой (morskój boj) — guessing game
  • Swedish: sänka skepp — guessing game
  • Turkish: amiral battı — guessing game
Real reading context

battleship in complete knowledge articles