Flagship is one of many words that originated as naval terms. We will examine the definition of flagship, where it came from and some examples of its use in sentences.





A flagship is the most important, impressive, largest or finest example of something in a chain, series or group. Some examples of the use of the word flagship in this sense are flagship store, flagship radio station and flagship brand. The original meaning of flagship is the ship on which the commanding officer of a group of naval ships sails, due to the fact that this vessel flies a particular flag. This definition of the word flagship has been in use since the 1670s. The figurative meaning of the word flagship came into use in the mid-1930s. The plural form of flagship is flagships. Note that flagship is a closed compound word, which is a word derived from two separate words joined together without a space between them.




