Historically, a fast battleship was a battleship of which the design featured an emphasis on speed which was unusual, compared to the normal practice of the time. The term is especially appropriate when applied to a design which was not only faster than the preceding battleship class, but also faster than subsequent classes as well. The extra speed of a fast battleship was normally required so as to equip the vessel for roles additional to the normal service of a battleship within the line of battle. HMS Victory in 1884 Battleship was the name given to the most powerfully gun-armed and most heavily armored classes of warships built between the 15th and 20th centuries. ... A ship class is a group of ships of a similar design. ... British and Danish ships in line of battle at the Battle of Copenhagen (1801). ...

A fast battleship was distinguished from a battlecruiser in that it would have been expected to be able to engage hostile battleships in sustained combat on at least equal terms. The requirement to deliver increased speed without compromising fighting ability was the principal challenge of fast battleship design. HMS Hood (left) and the battleship HMS Barham (right), in Malta, 1937. ...

Unlike battlecruiser, which became official Royal Navy usage in 1911, the term fast battleship was essentially an informal one. With the partial exception^{[citation needed]} of the Royal Navy's Queen Elizabeth class, fast battleships were not distinguished from conventional battleships in official documentation^{[citation needed]}; nor were they recognised as a distinctive category in contemporary ship lists or treaties. There is no separate code for fast battleships in the US Navy's hull classification system, all battleships, fast or slow, being rated as ‘BB’. The Royal Navy of the United Kingdom is the senior service of the British armed services being the oldest of its three branches. ... The Royal Navy of the United Kingdom is the senior service of the British armed services being the oldest of its three branches. ... The Queen Elizabeth class battleships were five super-dreadnoughts of the Royal Navy, named in honour of Elizabeth I of England. ... The United States Navy (USN) is the branch of the United States armed forces responsible for conducting naval operations around the globe. ... The United States Navy uses hull classification symbols (sometimes called hull codes) to identify the types of its ships. ...

All battleships built after the 1922 Washington Naval Treaty had a much higher speed than those built prior to the treaty and were regarded as fast battleships. Most of these ships were built just prior to, or during WW2. Some of these include: The Washington Naval Treaty limited the naval armaments of its five signatories: the United States, the British Empire, the Empire of Japan, the French Third Republic, and Italy. ...

• German Bismark class
• British King George V class
• Japanese Yamato class
• American Iowa class
• French Dunkerque class
• Italian Vittorio Veneto class