Illustration of ketch
: a fore-and-aft rigged vessel similar to a yawl but with a larger mizzen sail and with the mizzenmast stepped farther forward
Examples of ketch in a Sentence
Recent Examples on the Web
That made Sir Robin, as he’s now known, the first person to complete a nonstop, single-handed circumnavigation, aboard his 32-foot ketch Suhaili. McIntyre, a former offshore racer, resurrected the 50th-anniversary rendition of the race in 2018.
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Michael Verdon, Robb Report, 17 July 2022
Now those waters—especially as plied aboard a traditional Turkish gulet or ketch (wooden sailing yacht)—are one of the world’s most popular sailing destinations, and a wish-list item for even wanna-be sailors.
—Ann Abel, Forbes, 27 June 2022
It was taken by crew members on a ketch that sailed near the island of Java in the summer of 2019.
—Michelle Nijhuis, Scientific American, 20 July 2022
Scic has a fleet of classic ketch yachts with modern schooner rigging and sails with a surface area of around 4,300 square feet.
—Ann Abel, Forbes, 27 June 2022
The focus of the adventure, the Eilean, is a 70-foot ketch built by legendary yacht builder William Fife III in 1936, around the time Panerai was making its first series of watches for the Italian Navy’s special operations unit, or COMSUBIN.
—Carol Besler, Robb Report, 27 June 2022
Unlike its more visible protest cohorts, the Golden Rule is a 34-foot wooden ketch that embarked on its first anti-nuclear arms protest in 1958.
—Diane Bell Columnist, San Diego Union-Tribune, 5 Feb. 2022
That year, a crew of mostly Quaker activists sailed to Hawaii aboard the ketch with the goal of interfering with U.S. atmospheric nuclear testing in the Marshall Islands.
—Jessica Flores, San Francisco Chronicle, 3 June 2021
The 282-foot Aquijo might be the largest high-performance sailing ketch in the world, but that wasn’t the primary goal of its design.
—Julia Zaltzman, Robb Report, 12 Mar. 2021
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Michael Verdon, Robb Report, 17 July 2022
Now those waters—especially as plied aboard a traditional Turkish gulet or ketch (wooden sailing yacht)—are one of the world’s most popular sailing destinations, and a wish-list item for even wanna-be sailors.
—Ann Abel, Forbes, 27 June 2022
It was taken by crew members on a ketch that sailed near the island of Java in the summer of 2019.
—Michelle Nijhuis, Scientific American, 20 July 2022
Scic has a fleet of classic ketch yachts with modern schooner rigging and sails with a surface area of around 4,300 square feet.
—Ann Abel, Forbes, 27 June 2022
The focus of the adventure, the Eilean, is a 70-foot ketch built by legendary yacht builder William Fife III in 1936, around the time Panerai was making its first series of watches for the Italian Navy’s special operations unit, or COMSUBIN.
—Carol Besler, Robb Report, 27 June 2022
Unlike its more visible protest cohorts, the Golden Rule is a 34-foot wooden ketch that embarked on its first anti-nuclear arms protest in 1958.
—Diane Bell Columnist, San Diego Union-Tribune, 5 Feb. 2022
That year, a crew of mostly Quaker activists sailed to Hawaii aboard the ketch with the goal of interfering with U.S. atmospheric nuclear testing in the Marshall Islands.
—Jessica Flores, San Francisco Chronicle, 3 June 2021
The 282-foot Aquijo might be the largest high-performance sailing ketch in the world, but that wasn’t the primary goal of its design.
—Julia Zaltzman, Robb Report, 12 Mar. 2021
See More
These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'ketch.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.
Word History
Etymology
alteration of catch, from Middle English cache
First Known Use
circa 1649, in the meaning defined above
Dictionary Entries Near ketch
Cite this Entry
“Ketch.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/ketch. Accessed 6 Dec. 2023.
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Kids Definition
ketch
noun
: a two-masted fore-and-aft-rigged ship
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