Laivasto

Laivasto is the Finnish term for a fleet, referring to an organized group of warships assigned to perform naval operations. In general usage it can denote either the main body of a navy or a subunit such as a regional or task-specific fleet within a larger maritime force. The word is formed from laiva, meaning ships, together with the suffix -sto, commonly used in Finnish to form collective nouns.

In Finland, the naval forces are officially known as Merivoimat (the Finnish Navy). The term laivasto appears mainly in historical writings, literature, or descriptive texts as a generic label for a fleet, rather than as the current official designation of a standing unit. When used today, it often conveys the concept of naval organization in a historical or comparative sense rather than a present administrative unit.

In Finnish-language sources about other countries, laivasto is used as the standard translation of "fleet" to refer to the assembled ships of a navy, including historical fleets in various eras.

See also Merivoimat and naval terminology.