A battleship is a large, heavily armored warship built to fight other major warships using massive guns. These ships were the most powerful naval weapons from the 1900s through World War II, with thick steel armor that could withstand direct hits and enormous guns that could fire shells weighing as much as a car over 20 miles.

Famous American battleships include the USS Missouri, where Japan formally surrendered to end World War II, and the USS Arizona, which still rests at the bottom of Pearl Harbor as a memorial to those who died there. These ships carried crews of over 2,000 sailors and stretched longer than two football fields.

Battleships became obsolete after World War II because aircraft carriers proved more effective: planes could attack from hundreds of miles away, while battleship guns could only reach targets within their range. The last battleships were retired in the 1990s.

The word also names a classic strategy game where two players try to sink each other's hidden fleet by calling out coordinates on a grid. When you play Battleship, you're trying to locate and destroy your opponent's ships, including their largest vessel: the battleship itself.