Skip to main content
landing craft

landing craft

7 4.2
A small boat that carries soldiers and equipment from ships to shore
  • noun
  • /ˈlændɪŋ kræft/
  • Specialized
translation icon : embarcación de desembarco
  • The troops waited anxiously as their landing craft approached the shore.

Examples

  • The landing craft made its way tediously toward the beach.

    Fiction book (2002)
  • We could see the landing craft running up on the beaches.

  • I was inside the landing craft.

    Fiction book (1999)
  • What about those landing craft?

    Fiction book (1993)
  • I was the first one into the landing craft, so I sat by the pilot.

  • The great question now was, would the landing craft make the rendezvous?

    Fiction book (1993)
  • Salinger was in a landing craft coming in towards Utah Beach.

  • The older of my veteran brothers operated a landing craft on many of the invasions in the Pacific.

    Blog text (11)
  • My father piloted a Higgins landing craft and took troops into Omaha Beach on D-Day.

    Blog text (11)
  • Several landing craft were deployed to transport soldiers from the ships to the beach.

Synonyms

troop carrier
vslanding craft
  • Specialized
3 4.4

A vehicle like a truck or plane that carries soldiers

is focused on beach landings from ships rather than general transport
troop transport
vslanding craft
  • Specialized
2 4.9

A vehicle like a truck, ship, or helicopter that carries soldiers

is specifically a naval landing vessel used to reach the shore
troopship
vslanding craft
  • Specialized
1 7.4

A ship that carries soldiers, often during war

is smaller and meant to carry troops and equipment to land from ships
LCA
vslanding craft
  • Archaic
9.9

A small military boat that carries soldiers to a beach

is a small naval vessel that brings troops and equipment from ship to shore
LST
vslanding craft
  • Archaic
9.1

A large ship that carries tanks and other vehicles onto a beach

is smaller and mainly for moving soldiers and their gear rather than vehicles
ship's boat
vslanding craft
  • Specialized
4.2

A small boat that a ship carries to move people between ship and shore

is designed for military shore assaults and to carry heavy gear and troops

How Big

transport ship
  • Specialized
8 4.0
landing craft
  • Specialized
7 4.2
boat
1.0
dinghy
18 4.8

Surface Forms

landing craft singular

Morphology

landing + craft

The meaning 'a small naval vessel used to transport troops and equipment to shore' is directly derivable from combining 'landing' (coming ashore / place for disembarkation) with 'craft' (a vessel). The noun–noun compounding pattern (first noun specifying the function/type of the second) is common in English and cross-linguistically, so a B1 learner who knows both constituents would readily infer the MWE's meaning.

Etymology

The name landing craft comes from small flat boats used in war that did the landing: they carried soldiers and vehicles from a ship onto the beach. Because these craft moved people and equipment from ship to shore, the name now means 'a small boat used to carry troops and equipment from ship to land'.