gunship

noun

gun·​ship ˈgən-ˌship 

: a helicopter or cargo aircraft armed with rockets and machine guns

Examples of gunship in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

In 2015, two dozen patients and 14 staff members were killed when a heavily armed U.S. gunship fired for over an hour on a Doctors Without Borders hospital in northern Afghanistan, a disaster that has become a cautionary tale for military planners. —Hannah Allam, ProPublica, 10 Mar. 2026

Considered one of the most impressive diving destinations in the Grenadines, it can be paired with an excursion to the wreck of the Puruni, a British gunship that has been sitting beneath 40 feet of water off the coast of the island for more than a century. —Carley Rojas Avila, Travel + Leisure, 3 Mar. 2026

In the aftermath of the 1991 Persian Gulf War, Saddam Hussein’s Iraq used helicopter gunships to crush a rebellion in Iraqi Kurdistan. —Paul Iddon, Forbes.com, 25 Feb. 2026

Its very presence seemed to affect the adjacent gunship and yacht. —Jeff Spry, Space.com, 30 Jan. 2026

Word History

First Known Use

1965, in the meaning defined above

Rhymes for gunship

• airship
• airstrip
• clerkship
• courtship
• equip
• filmstrip
• flagship
• headship
• heirship
• judgeship
• kinship
• lightship

Kids Definition

gunship

noun

gun·​ship -ˌship 

: an aircraft armed with rockets and machine guns for protection of ground troops or helicopters carrying them