Definition
A boat or ship; any vessel that travels on water.
Example
我们坐船去那个小岛。
Show translation
We took a boat to that small island.
Etymology
An ancient pictograph dating to oracle bone script (甲骨文, jiǎgǔwén). The original character depicted the outline of a boat hull with a mast or interior space. The modern form 船 combines the semantic component 舟 (zhōu, "small boat," itself an ancient pictograph) with 铅 (without the metal radical), though in practice 船 is now the standard everyday word while 舟 survives mainly in literary or compound contexts.
Cultural note
China's relationship with water transport is ancient and central to its civilization — the Grand Canal (大运河, Dà Yùnhé), completed in the Sui dynasty, once linked Beijing to Hangzhou by boat. Today, river ferries remain common on the Yangtze (长江) and Pearl (珠江) rivers. Note that 船 is the general word for any watercraft, while 轮船 (lúnchuán) specifies a steamship or ocean liner, and 渔船 (yúchuán) means a fishing boat.