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In the 17th–19th centuries, a frigate was a three-masted, fully rigged sailing ship, often carrying 30–40 guns in all. Smaller and faster than ships of the line (the principal vessels of naval warfare), frigates served as scouts or as escorts protecting merchant convoys; they also cruised the seas as merchant raiders themselves. In World War II, Britain revived the term frigate using it to describe escort ships equipped with sonar and depth charges, and used these ships to guard convoys from submarines. In the postwar decades, the frigate also adopted an antiaircraft role, adding radar and surface-to-air missiles. Modern frigates can sail at a speed of 30 knots and carry a crew of 200.
Examples of frigate in a Sentence
Prabhat Ranjan Mishra,
Interesting Engineering,
20 June 2026
Russia says the crew of the frigate Admiral Grigorovich fired shots into the air after the sailboat failed to respond to warnings to change course.
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ABC News,
17 June 2026
O’Brien advised them to build a large, permanent air-force base, and to keep frigates on rotation in the Nuuk harbor, as a deterrent to the Russian and Chinese navies.
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Ben Taub,
New Yorker,
15 June 2026
The Baltic Sea region is on high alert after a string of power cable, telecom link and gas pipeline outages since Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022, and NATO has boosted its military presence with frigates, aircraft and naval drones.
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Reuters,
NBC news,
5 June 2026
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Cite this Entry
“Frigate.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/frigate. Accessed 28 Jun. 2026.
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frigate
noun
