marine

American  

[muh-reen] / məˈrin /

adjective

1. of or relating to the sea; existing in or produced by the sea.

   marine vegetation.

2. pertaining to navigation or shipping; nautical; naval; maritime.

3. serving on shipboard, as soldiers.

4. of or belonging to the marines.

5. adapted for use at sea.

   a marine barometer.

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noun

• marines
  plural

1. a member of the U.S. Marine Corps.

2. one of a class of naval troops serving both on shipboard and on land.

3. seagoing ships collectively, especially with reference to nationality or class; shipping in general.

4. a picture with a marine subject; seascape.

5. naval affairs, or the department of a government, as in France, having to do with such affairs.

idioms

1. dead marine, an empty bottle of beer or spirits.

2. tell it / that to the marines! I don't believe your story; I refuse to be fooled.

marine British  

/ məˈriːn /

adjective

1. of, found in, or relating to the sea

2. of or relating to shipping, navigation, etc

3. of or relating to a body of seagoing troops

   marine corps

4. of or relating to a government department concerned with maritime affairs

5. used or adapted for use at sea

   a marine camera

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noun

1. shipping and navigation in general

   the merchant marine

2. (capital when part of a name) a member of a marine corps or similar body

3. a picture of a ship, seascape, etc

4. informal an expression of disbelief

marine Scientific  

/ mə-rēn′ /

1. Relating to the sea.

2. Relating to a system of open-ocean and unprotected coastal habitats, characterized by exposure to wave action, tidal fluctuation, and ocean currents and by the absence of trees, shrubs, or emergent vegetation. Water in the marine system is at or near the full salinity of seawater.

3. Compare lacustrine palustrine riverine

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Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• intermarine
  adjective
• nonmarine
  adjective
• semimarine
  adjective
• supermarine
  adjective
• unmarine
  adjective

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• marines
  plural

Etymology

Origin of marine

1325–75; Middle English maryne < Middle French marin (feminine marine ) < Latin marīnus of the sea, derivative of mare sea; see -ine ¹

Explanation

If it has to do with the ocean or sea, you can call it marine. Your friend in the U.S. Armed Services who is a Marine probably spends a lot of time near the ocean. Marine life is everything that lives in the water: plants, fish, sharks, algae, crabs, seahorses, giant squid, and the list goes on and on. When you study things that live in or near the sea, you are either a marine biologist or just really excited about ocean life. If you work in a field that deals with the ocean, boats, sailors or the navy you could be, for instance, a marine meteorologist.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

marine marines

Instead, its new age places it close to the Frasnian-Famennian mass extinction event, which occurred about 372 million years ago and wiped out a large proportion of marine life on Earth.

From Science Daily ● Oct. 4, 2026

"You can swim for hours and hours along the reef in the lagoon, just skeleton after skeleton. It's all dead," said marine biologist Austin Bowden-Kerby, who visited last year and documented the devastation.

From Barron's ● Oct. 4, 2026

Lamu hosts 70% of Kenya’s mangrove forests that provide a massive carbon sink and are vital breeding grounds for marine life and migratory birds.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 3, 2026

Dozens of ecotoxicologists and marine scientists are trying to fill key data gaps, and the findings so far have been one plot twist after another.

From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 1, 2026

When there is a division between the old and the new, it is apt to express itself on the most time-honored of batdefields: the putting green, the tennis court, or the marine berth.

From "Class Matters" by The New York Times

Another photo showed a grinning Kim sitting with Ju Ae at a table in the ship's mess hall, surrounded by uniformed marines eating instant rice meals.

From Barron's ● May 8, 2026

Soldiers, marines, and their support crews need food, water, ammo, and other supplies; a base of some sort would have to be set up.

From Slate ● Apr. 1, 2026

US Central Command said on X that the newly-arrived sailors and marines were part of a unit led by the warship USS Tripoli, which also includes assault and transport assets.

From BBC ● Mar. 29, 2026

“This is what we have the navy for. We have trained our marines for this,” he said in an interview at the time.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jan. 7, 2026

Two marines — they had obviously been in Nam awhile — came over and stood near the sergeant and looked at us.

From "Fallen Angels" by Walter Dean Myers

Related Words

• aquatic
• coastal
• deep-sea
• maritime
• naval
• saltwater
• seagoing