The word "yacht" may be one of the most overused and imprecise terms in the boating universe. The yacht that most people are probably familiar with is a sailing vessel of moderate to large size, say in the 40 to 80-foot range.  Cruisers in the size range may be referred to specifically as "motoryachts."  However, it is perfectly acceptable to call a motoryacht simply by the word "yacht."

Now when you get up to the really big boats, like the kind I crew on, most are also called simply "yachts," although most of them also are motorized (in fact, some of them have engines that would do justice to a Carnival cruise ship!).  When we get into this range, size-wise, we do have a precise definition of terms: A megayacht (or mega yacht, two words) is a luxury pleasure boat that is between 100 and 200 feet in length. A superyacht (or super yacht) is one that is longer than 200 feet.

And now you know.