Ever wondered the
difference between a battlecruiser and a battleship, or debated whether your
vessel is a light, medium, or heavy freighter? The Star Wars universe is
absolutely full of all sorts of wonderful starships, but there are so many
terms and classifications for them that it can get awfully confusing sometimes!
This post is intended as a non-exhaustive guide to describing some common ships’
various classifications in your writing, both military and civilian.

The rest is under the
cut. Sorry for the long post, mobile users!

Capital Ships

A capital ship is defined
as any armed military starship with a length greater than 100 meters, typically
designed for fleet warfare. The Anaxes War College System, established during
the Clone Wars and used by the successive governments, divided capital ships
into seven main classifications:

• Corvette: 100-200 meters in length
• Frigate: 200-400 meters
• Cruiser: 400-600 meters
• Light
  cruiser: 350-400 meters (sometimes interchangeable with frigates)
• Medium cruiser:
  400-500 meters
• Heavy cruiser: 600-1000 meters
• Star Destroyer: 1000-2000 meters
• Battlecruiser: 2000-5000 meters
• Dreadnaught: 5000+ meters

Sometimes, depending
on its armament and typical role in a battle, a ship could be moved up or down
a classification. The Carrack-class
light cruiser, for example, was sometimes considered a cruiser despite technically
being a frigate at 350 meters long. The Secutor-class
Star Destroyer was classified as a Star Destroyer even though it was 2200
meters long, because its role as a carrier ship meant that it had a light
armament that was atypical of battlecruisers. (Note that Star Destroyer as a
classification was separate from the specific term Star Destroyer originally used
by Kuat Drive Yards to describe their own ships. By the time of the Clone Wars,
many capital ships not manufactured by KDY were also referred to as Star
Destroyers.)

Some other terms were
also used to describe capital ships:

• Battleship: a general name used for large
  capital ships, often Star Destroyer-sized and above. They were well-armed and
  shielded, and took either an active role in combat or a “peacekeeping” role.
• Warship: often synonymous with battleship, but
  sometimes used as a specific class, comparable to a frigate or a cruiser.
• Battlecruiser (informal): a large,
  heavily-armoured capital ship that was not considered a battleship, made for destroying
  other capital ships. Alternately, a vessel designated “battlecruiser” due to
  differing naming customs, while serving the role of another class of ship.
• Flagship: the primary command ship in a fleet,
  usually the largest or most powerful vessel.
• Carrier: a starship designed primarily to carry
  smaller starships and fighters into battle. While dedicated carriers usually
  had few weapons and weaker shielding, others could serve a dual purpose as
  carriers and battleships.
• Interdictor vessel: a starship with the ability
  to generate a gravity well and pull vessels out of hyperspace. Interdictors could
  belong to varying capital ship classes, ranging from frigates to Star
  Destroyers.
• Super Star Destroyer: a ship with the typical dagger-shaped
  profile of a Star Destroyer that falls into the size category of battlecruiser
  or dreadnaught.
• Superdreadnaught: a little-used term for a very
  large dreadnaught. The Eye of Palpatine,
  at 19 kilometers in length, was considered a superdreadnaught.

(The Supremacy, a 60-kilometer wide Mega-class Star Dreadnaught, could be
called a superdreadnaught)

Starfighters

A starfighter is a
small, maneuverable ship used in space or atmosphere battles. There are several
different kinds of ships commonly considered starfighters:

• Snubfighter: a fighter carrying a crew of one
  or two people, typically equipped with laser or blaster weaponry, missiles or
  torpedoes, and a hyperdrive. The infamous X-wing starfighter is a snubfighter.
• Bomber: a fighter designed for combat against
  well-armoured targets such as capital ships, space stations, and buildings. They
  carried projectile weapons such as proton bombs, concussion missiles, proton
  torpedoes and thermal detonators, often in addition to energy weapons, and were
  generally escorted by more maneuverable starfighters or support craft like
  frigates.
• Interceptor: a particularly fast and maneuverable
  starfighter, designed to combat enemy fighters and bombers. They lacked heavy
  armour and ordnance payloads, and sometimes a hyperdrive, in the interest of
  making the fighter as fast as possible.
• Atmospheric fighter: a starfighter specialized
  for flight in atmosphere, such as the TIE striker.

(A few models of classic starfighters)

Sometimes, larger
ships were also considered starfighters. Certain transports, shuttles, and
light freighters—generally, ones that have a heavy armament in relation to
their size as well as decent maneuverability—could be lumped into this
category. In addition, the term starfighter could (but does not always) include
the following:

• Gunship: a general designation for small troop
  deployment and attack carriers. They were usually equipped with heavy weaponry
  and armour, allowing them to survive and fight through a battle long enough to
  deliver or pick up troops and supplies. They could serve as escorts to larger
  ships, and some were designed to carry large ground-based vehicles like the
  AT-TE onto a battlefield. Sometimes, small capital ships were referred to as
  gunships.
• Blastboat: a small starship built for combat,
  fast enough to intercept other ships and serve as a patrol craft but strong
  enough to survive encounters with well-armed and armoured opponents. They tended
  to fall between starfighters and capital ships in terms of function, size and
  armament, but some, such as the GAT-12 Skipray Blastboat, were considered heavy
  starfighters.
• Airspeeder: though a starfighter is almost
  always capable of space combat, the term can sometimes be applied to certain
  low-altitude airspeeders.

(Republic LAAT-series
gunships were heavily used throughout the Clone Wars and beyond)

Freighters

A freighter is any
spacecraft used to transport freight or cargo. Sometimes interchangeably called
a cargo ship or barge. Freighters were often arranged into several loose
categories depending on their size/capacity and function, though these classes
could be highly variable.

• Light freighter: a ship used for small cargo
  operations. Many light freighters were equipped with weapons and a decent
  hyperdrive, and were capable of holding their own in combat. They tended to
  measure around 30 meters in length, but could be larger or smaller, and
  commonly had a cargo capacity of about 50-100 metric tons. The Ghost and the Millennium Falcon were both light freighters.
• Medium freighter: an ambiguous class of
  freighter. A medium freighter could be anywhere from around 30 meters in length
  to a couple hundred, and tended to have a cargo capacity of several hundred
  tons. Some medium freighters are also considered bulk freighters, and some function
  as container ships.
• Heavy freighter: an ambiguous class used to
  describe a freighter with a larger cargo capacity than the light freighter.
  Whether a ship is considered a light, medium or heavy freighter depends on the
  manufacturer and series; there is no set definition. There are heavy freighters
  ranging in length from 50 to several hundred meters, and in cargo capacity from
  only 150 tons to over 50,000. Heavy freighter is often used interchangeably
  with bulk freighter.
• Super freighter: a term used to describe a very
  large freighter or a freighter with a very large capacity. The Cargo Empress-class super freighter was
  one example, with a length of 110 meters and a capacity of 50,000 tons.
• Bulk freighter: a freighter used in commercial
  shipping operations to carry bulk loads. Usually considered either a medium or
  heavy freighter, and often capable of carrying tens of thousands of tons.
• Container ship: freighters used to haul large
  numbers of crates and containers, sometimes carried on the outside of the ship.
  Hundreds of thousands of tons of cargo could be carried on a container ship,
  but they were very costly to operate.
• Drone freighter: an unmanned freighter,
  requiring no crew.
• Tramp freighter: an unaffiliated ship operated
  by an independent captain.
• Freight liner: an affiliated ship with
  established and scheduled ports of call.

(The class four
container transport, also called an Imperial cargo ship, was a container ship capable of carrying up to 210 large cargo containers)

Other Terms

• Transport/space transport/starferry: a starship
  that carried cargo or passengers from one location to another, or a vessel that
  performs this same function. Freighters, passenger liners, troop transports,
  and even ground vehicles such as AT-ATs all fit into this classification.
• Shuttle/shuttlecraft: a small vessel used to
  transport personnel, usually through space, between a planet and a ship in
  orbit, or between two ships.
• Yacht: a starship (or aquatic ship) used for
  recreational purposes. They were usually about the size of light freighters, but
  could get as large as small capital ships, and tended to be expensive.
• Scout vessel: a starship used for scientific/commercial
  exploration or for military reconnaissance.
• System patrol craft: a combat-capable starship
  intended to operate within a star system. They acted both as planetary
  defence/customs and as a first line of defence, and though they usually lacked
  hyperdrives many were considered small capital ships and were capable of skirmishing
  with other capital ships as large as frigates.
• Boarding craft: a vessel used for boarding enemy
  ships and space stations, sometimes also a kind of shuttle.
• Assault ship: a general term used to describe
  capital ships and starfighters intended for offensive action.
• Consular ship: a diplomatic vessel.
  Alternately, any vessel officially used by a member of the Imperial Senate.
• Courier: a fast ship built for delivery of
  urgent cargo and passengers.
• Hospital ship: a medical spacecraft of varying
  size, often accompanying a military fleet into battle. More on hospital ships here.
• Medical frigate: a ship used for medical
  support during battles. They often didn’t fit the size guidelines of other
  frigates, ranging from 35 meters to two kilometers. 
• Communications/comm ship: a naval vessel fitted
  with extra transceivers to help communication between fleet elements and
  military headquarters.
• Tug: a starship fitted with tractor beams, used
  to move or guide ships, structures, or cargo containers.
• Space station: a structure built for use in
  orbit or deep space, often intended for habitation or research purposes or as
  orbiting docks. While they were usually immobile, some military space stations
  such as the Death Star had engines and hyperdrives, making them starships as
  well.

And, of course, if you
need to know the type/classification of a specific starship, you can always
check out its Wookieepedia page or shoot me an ask! Good luck with your writing!

~ Jacen

Want to support what I do? Buy me a coffee!