An armor-plated warship built of steel and heavily armed, generally having over ten thousand tons displacement, and intended to be fit to combat the heaviest enemy ships in line of battle; the most heavily armed and armored class of warship at any given time.

large and heavily armoured warship

a specific type of warship, of which the U

The largest class of warship, not counting carriers, heavily armoured and armed with the largest calibre guns.

Battleship is the name applied to very large, heavily-armored warships with a main battery consisting of the largest caliber of guns, specifically those ships built from the late 1800s through to the mid-20th century. The word battleship was coined around 1794 and is a shortened form of line-of-battle ship (otherwise known as ship of the line). Modern battleships developed from the 19th-century ironclad warship, and the common image of the battleship derives from the design of the revolutionary HMS Dreadnought.