supercarrier

noun

su·​per·​car·​ri·​er ˌsü-pər-ˈker-ē-ər How to pronounce supercarrier (audio)
-ˈka-rē-
plural supercarriers
: a very large aircraft carrier
The revival of support for the nuclear-powered supercarrier in the last three years has been little short of miraculous.U.S. Naval Institute
Included in the supercarrier contingent are eight astonishingly large and sophisticated Nimitz-class floating cities, crewed by nearly 6,000 people and capable of launching more aircraft per minute than Chicago's O'Hare Airport …Gregg Easterbrook

Examples of supercarrier in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web
These examples are automatically compiled from online sources to illustrate current usage. Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.
The 80,000-ton carrier dwarfs the PLAN’s two active carriers, the 66,000-ton Shandong and the 60,000-ton Liaoning, putting it in the league of supercarriers. Edward Szekeres and Brad Lendon, CNN, 1 Nov. 2024 In fact, a Swedish submarine using a similar Stirling AIP system, the HSwMS Gotland, repeatedly defeated the anti-submarine capabilities of the USS Ronald Reagan’s carrier strike group in 2005, sinking the supercarrier in several simulated battles. Alex Hollings, Popular Mechanics, 5 Apr. 2023 To compare, America’s previous first-in-class supercarrier, the USS Nimitz (CVN 68), needed 8.3 years to get from Milestone II—today’s Milestone B (a sort of procurement starting point) — to an Initial Operational Capability (IOC), while the USS Ford has taken more than 17 years. Craig Hooper, Forbes, 21 Oct. 2021 The exercises featured a helicopter firing a small anti-ship missile, one far too small to do much damage to an American supercarrier. Kyle Mizokami, Popular Mechanics, 28 July 2020 The Navy could buy a smaller or less capable version of its current $13-billion-apiece Ford-class supercarrier—a non-nuclear variant, for instance. David Axe, Forbes, 5 Apr. 2021 Symbolic gestures recognized individual Black Americans who were posthumously honored with a Pulitzer Prize, the naming of a new naval supercarrier, and the renaming of NASA headquarters in Washington. Lindsey McGinnis, The Christian Science Monitor, 23 Dec. 2020 After the Cold War, the Navy standardized supercarrier-sized ships. Kyle Mizokami, Popular Mechanics, 30 Oct. 2020 The Roosevelt aircraft carrier infamously was forced to port in Guam in March after a rapid contagion tore across the supercarrier, infecting nearly 1,000 sailors of a crew of 4,865. Abraham Mahshie, Washington Examiner, 26 Oct. 2020

Word History

First Known Use

1921, in the meaning defined above

Time Traveler
The first known use of supercarrier was in 1921

Dictionary Entries Near supercarrier

Cite this Entry

“Supercarrier.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/supercarrier. Accessed 16 Nov. 2024.

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