Indian Ocean

[ in-dee-uhn oh-shuhn ]

noun
  1. an ocean south of Asia, east of Africa, and west of Australia, with its deepest section in the Java Trench. 27,243,268 square miles (70,560,000 square kilometers).

Origin of Indian Ocean

1
First recorded in 1580–90

Words Nearby Indian Ocean

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024

How to use Indian Ocean in a sentence

  • The Indian Ocean, meanwhile, swarmed with pirates of whose rapacity and cruelty frightful stories were told.

  • After some days we were in the Indian Ocean, plowing lazily along and counting the hours until we reached Mombasa.

    In Africa | John T. McCutcheon
  • These Indian Ocean steamers are usually filled with an interesting lot of passengers.

    In Africa | John T. McCutcheon
  • I have spoken of the abundance and variety of the epiphytous plants which grow profusely in the islands of the Indian Ocean.

    The Desert World | Arthur Mangin
  • The Papuan races likewise wandered far across the Indian Ocean.

British Dictionary definitions for Indian Ocean

Indian Ocean

noun
  1. an ocean bordered by Africa in the west, Asia in the north, and Australia in the east and merging with the Antarctic Ocean in the south. Average depth: 3900 m (13 000 ft). Greatest depth (off the Sunda Islands): 7450 m (24 442 ft). In December 2004 a major undersea earthquake off Sumatra triggered a tsunami which affected large areas of the ocean as far away as east Africa, and killed an estimated 226 435 people. Area: about 73 556 000 sq km (28 400 000 sq miles)

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Cultural definitions for Indian Ocean

Indian Ocean

Third-largest ocean (after the Atlantic Ocean and Pacific Ocean), extending from southern Asia to Antarctica and from eastern Africa to southeastern Australia.

The New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy, Third Edition Copyright © 2005 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.