difference between boat and ship
Cecil replies: Well, we could get technical, I suppose. Among sailing vessels, the distinction between ships and boats is that a ship is a square-rigged craft with at least three masts, and a boat isn't. With regard to motorized craft, a ship is a large vessel intended for oceangoing or at least deep-water transport, and a boat is anything else. But that's too much to remember. Try this: ships have to be big enough to carry boats, and boats have to be small enough to be carried by ships. There are exceptions, of course. Many commercial fishing craft, for example, are sizable oceangoing vessels, yet they're almost invariably called boats.
Best Answer: One definition that is often used is that you can fit a boat inside a ship but you cannot fit a ship inside a boat. A ship is a commercial vessel such as a passenger ship, a freighter or a tanker. A boat is smaller - could be a fishing boat, a dinghy, a sailboat, a row boat, etc., and could actually be fairly large. A yacht is a personally owned pleasure boat, either a sail boat or a power boat, but is not a ship.