Atlantic Ocean

American  

[at-lan-tik oh-shuhn] / ætˈlæn tɪk ˈoʊ ʃən /

Often the Atlantic

noun

1. an ocean bounded by North America and South America in the Western Hemisphere and by Europe and Africa in the Eastern Hemisphere, with its deepest section in the Puerto Rico Trench: divided by the equator into the North Atlantic Ocean and the South Atlantic Ocean. 32,870,000 square miles (85,133,000 square kilometers).

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Atlantic Ocean British  

noun

1. the world's second largest ocean, bounded in the north by the Arctic, in the south by the Antarctic, in the west by North and South America, and in the east by Europe and Africa. Greatest depth: 9220 m (30 246 ft). Area: about 81 585 000 sq km (31 500 000 sq miles)

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Atlantic Ocean Cultural  

1. Second-largest ocean in the world, separating North America and South America on the west from Europe and Africa on the east.

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Etymology

Origin of Atlantic Ocean

First recorded in 1600–10

Example Sentences

For Olson, the highlight of her time aboard the Plancius was the ship’s visit to South Georgia Island, home to millions of penguins in the South Atlantic Ocean.

From The Wall Street Journal • May 17, 2026

In 25 years of flying, Ian Nixon had never faced anything like the crash that left him and ten passengers stranded for hours in the Atlantic Ocean, waiting to be rescued off Florida's east coast.

From BBC • May 14, 2026

An outbreak aboard a cruise ship in the Atlantic Ocean has so far infected eight people, killing three of them: a German woman and a Dutch couple.

From Salon • May 11, 2026

It left Ushuaia, Argentina on April 1 for a cruise across the Atlantic Ocean to Cape Verde.

From Barron's • May 10, 2026

We were scheduled to fire our retro-rockets over the Pacific Ocean, west of Hawaii, whereupon we would begin a gradual descent and finally splash into the Atlantic Ocean east of Florida thirty minutes later.

From "Flying to the Moon: An Astronaut's Story" by Michael Collins