Dead Sea


noun
  1. a salt lake between Israel and Jordan: the lowest lake in the world, more than 1,400 feet (430 meters) below sea level. Water from the lake, whose extreme salinity and high mineral content make it inhospitable to plant or animal life, has been used for health purposes since ancient times.

Origin of Dead Sea

1
First recorded in 1300–50

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

How to use Dead Sea in a sentence

  • Here and there, though rarely, these slopes centre in a basin which is occupied by a lake or a Dead Sea.

    Outlines of the Earth's History | Nathaniel Southgate Shaler
  • We have already noted the fact that the basin of a Dead Sea becomes in course of time the seat of extensive salt deposits.

    Outlines of the Earth's History | Nathaniel Southgate Shaler
  • It is, of course, a Dead Sea, for there is absolutely nothing living in it save a variety of shrimp of low organization.

    The Cradle of Mankind | W.A. Wigram
  • Grey Abbey is like the Dead Sea, of which the waters are always bitter as well as stagnant.

    The Kellys and the O'Kellys | Anthony Trollope
  • It was with a shout, one day, that we welcomed a good wind, and shot clear of this Dead Sea of vegetable matter.

    Tramping on Life | Harry Kemp

British Dictionary definitions for Dead Sea

Dead Sea

noun
  1. a lake between Israel, Jordan, and the West Bank, now 420 m (1378 ft) below sea level; originally 390 m (1285 ft): the lowest lake in the world, with no outlet and very high salinity; outline, esp at the southern end, reduced considerably in recent years. Area: originally about 950 sq km (365 sq miles); by 2003 about 625 sq km (240 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 Dead Sea

Dead Sea

Salt lake on the border between Israel and Jordan.

Notes for Dead Sea

Its shore, at approximately thirteen hundred feet below sea level, is the lowest point of dry land on Earth.

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.