abyssal
of or like an abyss; immeasurable; unfathomable.
Origin of abyssal
1Words Nearby abyssal
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024
How to use abyssal in a sentence
Though surveys are difficult to conduct at the depths where they live and much of the abyssal plains have not been explored, we do know that xenophyophore meadows may cover large areas and that they inhabit the Atlantic and Pacific oceans.
They are the summits of very lofty mountains which have their bases in an abyssal ocean.
Verily, wheresoever it is, it is in the abyssal World, where there is neither end nor limit.
Dialogues on the Supersensual Life | Jacob BehmenOceanic islands are those, usually very small, found in the midst of the ocean, with abyssal depth all about.
Evolution | Joseph Le ConteThe zonarial Radiolaria live floating at various depths between the pelagic and abyssal species ( 234).
It must be remembered that abyssal faunas are almost unknown among fossils.
British Dictionary definitions for abyssal
/ (əˈbɪsəl) /
of or belonging to the ocean depths, esp below 2000 metres (6500 feet): abyssal zone
geology another word for plutonic
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
Scientific definitions for abyssal
[ ə-bĭs′əl ]
Relating to the greatest depths of the oceans and to the organisms that live there. The abyssal zone encompasses all depths below 4,000 m (13,120 ft).
Relating to the region of the ocean bottom between the bathyal and hadal zones, from depths of approximately 2,000 to 6,000 m (6,560 to 19,680 ft). The abyssal zone includes nearly two-thirds of the Earth's surface.
The American Heritage® Science Dictionary Copyright © 2011. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.
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