flagship

English

WOTD – 14 November 2006

Etymology

From flag +‎ ship.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈflæɡʃɪp/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

• Audio (General Australian):

  (file)

Noun

flagship (plural flagships)

1. (nautical, military) The ship occupied by the fleet's commander (usually an admiral); it denotes this by flying his flag.

   Synonyms: admiral, admiral ship

   • 2022 April 21, Neil MacFarquhar, Alina Lobzina, “With sunken warship, Russian disinformation faces a test.”, in The New York Times‎^[1], →ISSN:

     After Russia’s flagship in the Black Sea, the Moskva, sank last week, the authorities said that the entire crew of more than 500 had been rescued.

2. (nautical) The ship regarded as most important out of a group, e.g. a nation's navy or company's fleet.
3. (by extension, often attributive) The most important one out of a related group.

   Synonyms: chief, primary, principal, showcase

   The retail company's store in London is their flagship.

   • 2015 October 20, Stuart Dredge, “Google Nexus 5X and Nexus 6P review roundup: impressive Android flagships”, in The Guardian‎^[2]:

     Ars Technica’s Ron Amadeo considered the two smartphones together, and claimed them worthy flagships for Android: […]

   • 2017 October 2, Jess Cartner-Morle, “Stella McCartney lays waste to disposable fashion in Paris”, in The Guardian‎^[3]:

     Next year, Stella McCartney’s London flagship store will move from Bruton Street to a landmark Old Bond Street location. The move is the most prominent symbol of the label’s strong financial results.

   • 2022 January 12, Paul Stephen, “Network News: Vere admits to Lords: IRP lacks information”, in RAIL, number 948, page 10:

     Transport Minister Baroness Vere has conceded that the Government does not yet know how its flagship £96 billion Integrated Rail Plan "will actually work on the ground".

   • 2025 October 15, Jon Henley, “France’s parliamentary permacrisis is the dawning of a new political reality”, in The Guardian‎^[4], →ISSN:

     The latest prime minister, the recently reappointed Sébastien Lecornu, may have bought himself a stay of execution on Tuesday, sacrificing Emmanuel Macron’s flagship pensions overhaul in exchange for opposition Socialist votes as the price for his government’s survival.

Derived terms

• flagship species

Translations

ship occupied by the fleet's commander

• Albanian: please add this translation if you can
• Arabic: سَفِينَةُ الْقَائِد f (safīnatu l-qāʔid), سَفِينَةُ الْقِيَادَة f (safīnatu l-qiyāda)
• Armenian: ֆլագմանական նավ (flagmanakan nav), ֆլագման (hy) (flagman)
• Belarusian: фла́гманскі карабе́ль m (fláhmanski karabjélʹ), фла́гман m (fláhman)
• Bulgarian: фла́гмански ко́раб m (flágmanski kórab), фла́гман m (flágman)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 旗艦 / 旗舰 (zh) (qíjiàn)

• Czech: vlajková loď (cs) f
• Danish: flagskib n
• Dutch: vlaggenschip (nl) n
• Esperanto: ĉefŝipo
• Estonian: lipulaev (et)
• Finnish: lippulaiva (fi)
• French: navire amiral (fr) m, bateau amiral (fr) m, vaisseau amiral (fr) m
• Georgian: საფლანგო ხომალდი (saplango xomaldi), ფლაგმანი (ka) (plagmani)
• German: Flaggschiff (de) n
• Greek: ναυαρχίδα (el) f (navarchída)

  Ancient Greek: στρατηγίς ναῦς f (stratēgís naûs)

• Hebrew: אוניית דגל
• Hungarian: zászlóshajó (hu)
• Icelandic: flaggskip (is) n
• Irish: bratlong f
• Italian: nave ammiraglia f, ammiraglia (it) f, principale (it)
• Japanese: 旗艦 (ja) (きかん, kikan)
• Kazakh: флагман (flagman)
• Korean: 기함(旗艦) (ko) (giham)
• Kyrgyz: флагман (flagman)
• Latvian: admirāļa kuģis m, flagmanis m
• Lithuanian: flagmanas (lt) m
• Low German:

  German Low German: Flaggschipp n

• Norman: amitha m
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: flaggskip n

  Nynorsk: flaggskip n

• Polish: okręt flagowy m, flagowiec m
• Portuguese: navio-almirante (pt) m, capitânia (pt) m or f, nau capitânia f
• Romanian: navă-amiral f
• Russian: фла́гманский кора́бль m (flágmanskij koráblʹ), фла́гман (ru) m (flágman)
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: адмиралски брод m

  Latin: admiralski brod

• Slovak: vlajková loď f
• Slovene: poveljniška ladja f
• Spanish: buque insignia m, capitana f, nave capitana f, buque almirante m
• Swedish: flaggskepp (sv) n
• Turkish: amiral gemisi (tr), bayrak gemisi (tr)
• Ukrainian: фла́гманський корабе́ль m (fláhmansʹkyj korabélʹ), фла́гман m (fláhman)
• Vietnamese: soái hạm (vi)

the most important one out of a related group

• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 旗艦 / 旗舰 (zh) (qíjiàn)

• Czech: vlajková loď (cs) f
• Danish: flagskib n
• Finnish: lippulaiva (fi)
• French: vaisseau amiral (fr) m, navire amiral (fr) m, fleuron (fr) m, phare (fr) m (adjective)
• Italian: punta di diamante (it) f, fiore all'occhiello m
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: flaggskip n

  Nynorsk: flaggskip n

• Polish: flagowa rzecz f
• Portuguese: carro-chefe (pt)
• Spanish: buque insignia m, fontal, fénix (es) m, premier (es)
• Swedish: flaggskepp (sv)
• Ukrainian: фла́гман m (fláhman)

Verb

flagship (third-person singular simple present flagships, present participle flagshipping, simple past and past participle flagshipped)

1. (transitive) To act as a flagship for.

References

• “flagship”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.