Anchor vs. Ballast — What's the Difference?

An anchor is a device, normally made of metal, used to secure a vessel to the bed of a body of water to prevent the craft from drifting due to wind or current. The word derives from Latin ancora, which itself comes from the Greek ἄγκυρα (ankȳra).Anchors can either be temporary or permanent.

Ballast is material that is used to provide stability to a vehicle or structure. Ballast, other than cargo, may be placed in a vehicle, often a ship or the gondola of a balloon or airship, to provide stability.

A heavy object attached to a cable or chain and used to moor a ship to the sea bottom, typically having a metal shank with a pair of curved, barbed flukes at one end

Heavy material that is carried to improve stability or maintain proper trim, as on a ship, or to limit buoyancy, as on a balloon.

An anchorman or anchorwoman

Coarse gravel or crushed rock laid to form a bed for roads or railroads.

Moor (a ship) to the sea bottom with an anchor

The gravel ingredient of concrete.

Present and coordinate (a television or radio programme)

Something that gives stability, especially in character.

(Nautical) A heavy object attached to a vessel by a cable, rope, or chain and dropped into the water to keep the vessel in place either by its weight or by its flukes, which grip the bottom.

To stabilize or provide with ballast.

A rigid point of support, as for securing a rope.

To fill (a railroad bed) with or as if with ballast.

A source of security or stability.

(nautical) Heavy material that is placed in the hold of a ship (or in the gondola of a balloon), to provide stability.

An athlete, usually the strongest member of a team, who performs the last stage of a relay race or other competition.

(figuratively) Anything that steadies emotion or the mind.

The person at the end of a tug-of-war team.

Coarse gravel or similar material laid to form a bed for roads or railroads, or in making concrete; track ballast.

An anchorperson.

(construction) A material, such as aggregate or precast concrete pavers, which employs its mass and the force of gravity to hold single-ply roof membranes in place.

To secure (a vessel) with an anchor.

Device used for stabilizing current in an electric circuit (e.g. in a tube lamp supply circuit)

To secure with a fastener or similar device

(figurative) That which gives, or helps to maintain, uprightness, steadiness, and security.

To cause to be fixed in place; fix or immobilize

To stabilize or load a ship with ballast.

To cause to feel attached or secure

To lay ballast on the bed of a railroad track.

To provide a basis for; establish or found

To weigh down with a ballast.

(Sports) To serve as an anchor for (a team or competition)

Any heavy substance, as stone, iron, etc., put into the hold to sink a vessel in the water to such a depth as to prevent capsizing.

To narrate or coordinate (a newscast).

Any heavy matter put into the car of a balloon to give it steadiness.

To provide or form an anchor store for

Gravel, broken stone, etc., laid in the bed of a railroad to make it firm and solid.

(Nautical) To drop anchor or lie at anchor.

The larger solids, as broken stone or gravel, used in making concrete.

(nautical) A tool used to moor a vessel to the bottom of a sea or river to resist movement.

Fig.: That which gives, or helps to maintain, uprightness, steadiness, and security.

(nautical) An iron device so shaped as to grip the bottom and hold a vessel at her berth by the chain or rope attached. (FM 55-501).

To steady, as a vessel, by putting heavy substances in the hold.

(nautical) The combined anchoring gear (anchor, rode, bill/peak and fittings such as bitts, cat, and windlass.)

To fill in, as the bed of a railroad, with gravel, stone, etc., in order to make it firm and solid.

(heraldry) Representation of the nautical tool, used as a heraldic charge.

To keep steady; to steady, morally.

Any instrument serving a purpose like that of a ship's anchor, such as an arrangement of timber to hold a dam fast; a device to hold the end of a bridge cable etc.; or a device used in metalworking to hold the core of a mould in place.

Any heavy material used to stabilize a ship or airship

(Internet) A marked point in a document that can be the target of a hyperlink.

Coarse gravel laid to form a bed for streets and railroads

(television) An anchorman or anchorwoman.

An attribute that tends to give stability in character and morals; something that steadies the mind or feelings

(athletics) The final runner in a relay race.

A resistor inserted into a circuit to compensate for changes (as those arising from temperature fluctuations)

(archery) A point that is touched by the draw hand or string when the bow is fully drawn and ready to shoot.

An electrical device for starting and regulating fluorescent and discharge lamps

(economics) A superstore or other facility that serves as a focus to bring customers into an area.

Make steady with a ballast

(figurative) That which gives stability or security.

(architecture) A metal tie holding adjoining parts of a building together.

(US) A screw anchor.

(architecture) Carved work, somewhat resembling an anchor or arrowhead; part of the ornaments of certain mouldings. It is seen in the echinus, or egg-and-anchor (called also egg-and-dart, egg-and-tongue) ornament.

One of the anchor-shaped spicules of certain sponges.

One of the calcareous spinules of certain holothurians, as in species of Synapta.

(cartomancy) The thirty-fifth Lenormand card.

(obsolete) An anchorite or anchoress.

(slang) The brake of a vehicle.

(soccer) A defensive player, especially one who counters the opposition's best offensive player.

(climbing) A device for attaching a climber at the top of a climb, such as a chain or ring or a natural feature.

Alternative form of anker

To connect an object, especially a ship or a boat, to a fixed point.

To cast anchor; to come to anchor.

To stop; to fix or rest.

To provide emotional stability for a person in distress.

To perform as an anchorman or anchorwoman.

To be stuck; to be unable to move away from a position.

A iron instrument which is attached to a ship by a cable (rope or chain), and which, being cast overboard, lays hold of the earth by a fluke or hook and thus retains the ship in a particular station.

Any instrument or contrivance serving a purpose like that of a ship's anchor, as an arrangement of timber to hold a dam fast; a contrivance to hold the end of a bridge cable, or other similar part; a contrivance used by founders to hold the core of a mold in place.

Fig.: That which gives stability or security; that on which we place dependence for safety.

An emblem of hope.

A metal tie holding adjoining parts of a building together.

One of the anchor-shaped spicules of certain sponges; also, one of the calcareous spinules of certain Holothurians, as in species of Synapta.

An achorman, anchorwoman, or anchorperson.

An anchoret.

To place at anchor; to secure by an anchor; as, to anchor a ship.

To fix or fasten; to fix in a stable condition; as, to anchor the cables of a suspension bridge.

To cast anchor; to come to anchor; as, our ship (or the captain) anchored in the stream.

To stop; to fix or rest.

A mechanical device that prevents a vessel from moving

A central cohesive source of support and stability;

A television reporter who coordinates a broadcast to which several correspondents contribute

Fix firmly and stably;

Secure a vessel with an anchor;