pre-dreadnought
pre-dreadnought noun: a late-19th-century or early-20th-century battleship with a small number of big guns (typically no more than four) and a large number of quick-firing medium-caliber guns. It was made largely obsolete in 1906 by the dreadnought type of battleship.

Noun
pre-dreadnought (plural pre-dreadnoughts)
- A late-19th-century or early-20th-century battleship with a small number of big guns (typically no more than four) and a large number of quick-firing medium-caliber guns. It was made largely obsolete in 1906 by the dreadnought type of battleship.
Forms of pre-dreadnought
| plural | pre-dreadnoughts |
|---|---|
| alternative form | predreadnought |
Origin of pre-dreadnought
From pre- + dreadnought.
Questions about pre-dreadnought
- What does pre-dreadnought mean?
- Pre-dreadnought means a late-19th-century or early-20th-century battleship with a small number of big guns (typically no more than four) and a large number of quick-firing medium-caliber guns. It was made largely obsolete in 1906 by the dreadnought type of battleship.
- What part of speech is pre-dreadnought?
- Pre-dreadnought is a noun.
- What is the plural of pre-dreadnought?
- The plural of pre-dreadnought is pre-dreadnoughts.
Words near pre-dreadnought in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: pre-dreadnought (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
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Cite this entry: “pre-dreadnought.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/pre-dreadnought. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.
