A sailing ship with three or more masts, with square sails on the foremast and fore-and-aft sails on other masts; a variant spelling of barkentine.
From 'barque' (a ship with particular sail configuration) plus '-entine' or '-antine' suffix; related to Italian 'barca' meaning 'boat', ultimately from Latin 'barca'.
The barkantine was the perfect compromise ship—it had enough square sails to catch trade winds but stayed nimble enough to navigate unpredictable coastlines, making it ideal for 19th-century trading routes.
Complete word intelligence in one call. Free tier — 50 lookups/day.