flagship

UK/ˈflæɡʃɪp/US/ˈflæɡʃɪp/

nounB2+Occasional — familiar, but not everyday · #8,427 of 15,258mostly written

Other forms: flagships

A flagship is the leading ship, shop or product of a group. The flagship store, a flagship policy, the fleet's flagship.

The original is literal: the ship carrying the admiral flew his flag, so the whole fleet could see where command was. A flagship store loses money as often as not, because its job is to be seen rather than to sell.

Definitions of flagship

1nounflagshipThe leading ship, shop or product of a group.B2+
“The company's flagship store on the main street is five floors high.”

flagship is a leading thing.

Where it comes from

Flag plus ship, from the ship that flew the admiral's flag so the fleet knew where command was.

From flag + ship.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practised in Word Building

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flagship in the wild

Butterfly species, such as the monarch butterfly, have also served as flagship species in some contexts.
Flagship species
The burning of the Ottoman flagship off Chios took place on the night of 18 June 1822.
Burning of the Ottoman flagship off Chios
The building, at 727 Fifth Avenue, has served as Tiffany & Co.'s sixth flagship store since its completion in 1940.
Tiffany & Co. flagship store
The Saks Fifth Avenue flagship store is a department store on Fifth Avenue between 49th and 50th Streets in Midtown Manhattan, New York City.
Saks Fifth Avenue flagship store
The original 10-story structure at 611 Fifth Avenue has served as the flagship store of Saks Fifth Avenue since its completion in 1924.
Saks Fifth Avenue flagship store

From Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. These sentences were written by other people about their own subjects; they are here to show the word at work, not as anybody’s opinion.

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