ocean
any part of or the entirety of salt water that covers more than 70 percent of the earth's surface: Most of her adult life had been spent on the ocean, first on a fishing boat, then in the navy, now as a marine biologist.: Compare World Ocean.
a vast expanse or quantity: oceans of opportunity;the ocean of people at Woodstock.
Origin of ocean
1Other words from ocean
- o·cean·like, adjective
- in·ter·o·cean, adjective
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024
How to use ocean in a sentence
A number of moons in the Solar System have global oceans beneath surfaces of solid ice or ice mixed with other materials.
More than six years later, the oceans have continued their rise and the planet is ever warmer.
Dem Donors’ Lysistrata Moment on Climate Change | David Freedlander | September 18, 2014 | THE DAILY BEASTPlanning the next phase of the search has required creating a body of new scientific knowledge about the southern oceans.
MH370 Debris Is Lost Forever, Can the Plane Be Found Without It? | Clive Irving | September 7, 2014 | THE DAILY BEASTOur oceans are at a tipping point, which means we still have a chance to tip things back in the right direction—if we act now.
‘Mission Blue’ Warning: The Ocean Is Not Too Big to Fail | Sylvia A. Earle | August 15, 2014 | THE DAILY BEASTMars is not just Earth without oceans, similar as they are in many ways.
What oceans of futility one discovered, what mountains of pretense—and with what forests of scholarship grown over them!
Love's Pilgrimage | Upton SinclairBy this river and the Arkansaw there could be the best communication established between the Pacific and the Atlantic oceans.
The Expeditions of Zebulon Montgomery Pike, Volume II (of 3) | Elliott CouesIt stirred in Barrent a vague memory of some creature from Earth's oceans.
The Status Civilization | Robert SheckleyAnd so I put faster ships on the oceans, and faster means of travel on land.
My Life in Many States and in Foreign Lands | George Francis TrainAll the vessels on the oceans can be divided into two classes: steamships and sailing vessels.
Fifty-Two Story Talks To Boys And Girls | Howard J. Chidley
British Dictionary definitions for ocean
/ (ˈəʊʃən) /
a very large stretch of sea, esp one of the five oceans of the world, the Atlantic, Pacific, Indian, Arctic, and Antarctic
the body of salt water covering approximately 70 per cent of the earth's surface
a huge quantity or expanse: an ocean of replies
literary the sea
Origin of ocean
1Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
Scientific definitions for ocean
[ ō′shən ]
The continuous body of salt water that covers 72 percent of the Earth's surface. The average salinity of ocean water is approximately three percent. The deepest known area of the ocean, at 11,034 m (36,192 ft) is the Mariana Trench, located in the western Pacific Ocean.
Any of the principal divisions of this body of water, including the Atlantic, Pacific, Indian, and Arctic Oceans.
usage For ocean
The American Heritage® Science Dictionary Copyright © 2011. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.
Browse