HMS
n. countablen. Stands for His Majesty's Ship or Her Majesty's Ship. It is a title used before the name of a ship in the British Royal Navy.
n. Abbreviation for His Majesty's Ship or Her Majesty's Ship, used as a prefix for commissioned vessels of the British Royal Navy. Pronounced as the individual letters.
The HMS Victory is a very famous old ship.
The fleet was led by the HMS Queen Elizabeth, which served as the flagship during the international naval exercise.
Historical records indicate that the HMS Beagle carried Charles Darwin on his foundational voyage, though the prefix itself was not always applied as consistently in the nineteenth century as it is today.
Used as a prefix before the ship's name; the definite article 'the' is often omitted in naval tradition but common in general usage.
The HMS BelfastHMS BelfastIn formal naval contexts, the definite article 'the' is not used before the HMS prefix because it would be redundant to say 'The His Majesty's Ship'.