Pacific Ocean

American  

[puh-sif-ik oh-shuhn] / pəˈsɪf ɪk ˈoʊ ʃən /

Often the Pacific

noun

1. the largest of the world’s five principal oceans, bordered by the American continents, Asia, and Australia, with its deepest section in the Mariana Trench: divided by the equator into the North Pacific Ocean and the South Pacific Ocean. 62,455,900 square miles (161,760,000 square kilometers).

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Pacific Ocean British  

noun

1. the world's largest and deepest ocean, lying between Asia and Australia and North and South America: almost landlocked in the north, linked with the Arctic Ocean only by the Bering Strait, and extending to Antarctica in the south; has exceptionally deep trenches, and a large number of volcanic and coral islands. Area: about 165 760 000 sq km (64 000 000 sq miles). Average depth: 4215 m (14 050 ft). Greatest depth: Challenger Deep (in the Marianas Trench), 11 033 m (37 073 ft). Greatest width: (between Panama and Mindanao, Philippines) 17 066 km (10 600 miles)

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Pacific Ocean Cultural  

1. The largest ocean in the world, separating Asia and Australia on the west from North America and South America on the east.

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Etymology

Origin of Pacific Ocean

First recorded in 1560–70

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

Pacific Ocean

Panama has declared an emergency over El Nino, which raises surface temperatures in the central and eastern equatorial Pacific Ocean and causes global changes in winds and rainfall as well as erratic weather conditions.

From Barron's ● Sep. 3, 2026

A stocky former sumo wrestler, the mayor of this small city here worries there might be a collision one day in the narrow channel that connects the East China Sea with the Pacific Ocean.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 3, 2026

It’s a possibility, some weather experts say, and scientists are closely watching the storm system in question develop in the eastern Pacific Ocean, south of the Baja California peninsula.

From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 1, 2026

Nora arrived during a “very strong” El Niño — a climate pattern involving a warming of the central and eastern tropical Pacific Ocean.

From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 1, 2026

Soon they had defeated the Chinese and taken over many other islands in the Pacific Ocean.

From "Code Talker: A Novel About the Navajo Marines of World War Two" by Joseph Bruchac