ENGLISH · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

lifeboat.

A boat especially designed for saving the lives of shipwrecked people or people in distress at sea (either launched from the shore with a crew, or else carried on board a larger ship).

8 characters3 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

noun/ˈlaɪfˌbəʊt/Received-Pronunciation/ˈlaɪfˌboʊt/General-American

A boat especially designed for saving the lives of shipwrecked people or people in distress at sea (either launched from the shore with a crew, or else carried on board a larger ship).
An emergency vehicle carried aboard a spaceship.

Where this word comes from

Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *leyp- Proto-Germanic *lībanąder. Proto-Germanic *lībą Proto-West Germanic *līb Old English līf Middle English lyf English life Proto-Indo-European *bʰeyd- Proto-Indo-European *-os Proto-Indo-European *bʰóydos Proto-Germanic *baitaz Proto-West Germanic *bait Old English bāt Middle English bot English boat English lifeboat From life + boat.

verb/ˈlaɪfˌbəʊt/Received-Pronunciation/ˈlaɪfˌboʊt/General-American

To rescue; to carry to safety

Where this word comes from

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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.

Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.