Warship

How to spell warship

7 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce warship

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does warship mean?

1. nounA ship built and armed for use in naval combat.

Warship in a sentence

• The grey warship anchored in the harbour overnight.

• The museum displays a model of a nineteenth-century warship.

Where does warship come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

This is a transparent compound formed entirely from native English roots. The first element, 'war', descends from the Old English and Old North French 'werre', meaning a state of armed conflict or confusion, which itself goes back to a Germanic root tied to the idea of mixing things up or causing disorder. The second element, 'ship', comes from the Old English 'scip', the ordinary Germanic word for a seagoing vessel, related to Dutch 'schip' and German 'Schiff'. The two words were joined to name a vessel built and armed specifically for combat, with the compound coming into regular use as navies grew. Because both halves are short, familiar everyday words, the spelling is straightforward; the only point worth noting is that 'warship' has nothing to do with the similar sounding 'worship', which has a completely separate origin in the idea of 'worth'.

How the word is built

• war (armed conflict)
• ship (vessel)