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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
Lim Hui Jie, CNBC, 20 Apr. 2026
En route from Bermuda to Newfoundland, the Swift sank along with the British Royal Navy frigate HMS Barbadoes and the schooner Emeline.
—Andrea Margolis, FOXNews.com, 20 Apr. 2026
Artworks that were planned to go on display at Art Basel Hong Kong ended up stuck at sea for more than a month en route from Abu Dhabi, according to Jerome Sozzi, general manager of Bonds Fine Art Logistics in Hong Kong, after the US sank an Iranian frigate in the waters off Sri Lanka on March 4.
—Brian Boucher, ARTnews.com, 20 Apr. 2026
Japanese Defense Minister Shinjiro Koizumi and his Australian counterpart Richard Marles attended a signing ceremony aboard the Mogami-class frigate JS Kumano, which is part of the Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force, docked off the Australian city of Melbourne.
—ABC News, 17 Apr. 2026
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Cite this Entry
“Frigate.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/frigate. Accessed 22 Apr. 2026.
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frigate
noun
