spaceship

• space ship

• space +‎ ship
• (programming operator): From its resemblance to the shape of a flying saucer.

spaceship (plural spaceships)

1. (astronautics) A vehicle that flies through space.
2. (cellular automata) A finite pattern that reappears after a certain number of generations in the same orientation but in a different position.
   • 1989 October 26, Richard Schroeppel, “Some recent Life results”, in comp.theory.cell-automata‎ (Usenet):

     The spaceships look like a row of threshers harvesting a field of wheat; the thickness in the direction of motion is only about 10 cells.

   • 2002, Richard Nowakowski, More Games of No Chance, page 433:

     We describe software that searches for spaceships in Conway's Game of Life and related two-dimensional cellular automata.

   • 2010, Andrew Adamatzky, Game of Life Cellular Automata, page 126:

     Synthesis of spaceship flotillas is even more complicated than synthesis of oscillators, since spaceships are like oscillators that move […]

3. (programming) The operator <=> in certain programming languages, which compares two values and indicates whether the first is lesser than, greater than, or equal to the second.
   • 2012, Randal Schwartz, Brian Foy, Tom Phoenix, Intermediate Perl, page 142:

     If we reverse the positions of $a and $b, the spaceship will sort in the opposite order […]

• (vehicle): spacecraft

• ship

(vehicle):

• generation ship
• space station
• starship

(pattern):

• glider
• lightweight spaceship
• middleweight spaceship
• oblique spaceship
  • knightship

• flying saucer
• spacecraft
• starship
• UFO

• spaceship on Wikipedia.Wikipedia