ocean

[ oh-shuhn ]

See synonyms for ocean on Thesaurus.com

noun

any part of or the entirety of salt water that covers more than 70 percent of the earth's surface: Most of her adult life had been spent on the ocean, first on a fishing boat, then in the navy, now as a marine biologist.: Compare World Ocean.
any of the geographical divisions of the earth’s salt water, in particular, the five identified as the Pacific, Atlantic, Indian, Southern, and Arctic Oceans.

a vast expanse or quantity: oceans of opportunity;the ocean of people at Woodstock.

Origin of ocean

First recorded in 1250–1300; Middle English ocean(e), from Old French or directly from Latin ōceanus, special use of Ōceanus Oceanus, from Greek ōkeanós, Ōkeanós

Other words from ocean

o·cean·like, adjective
in·ter·o·cean, adjective

Words Nearby ocean

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

How to use ocean in a sentence

And, by warming the oceans, climate change is also setting the stage for supercharged storms, scientists say.
What’s behind August 2020’s extreme weather? Climate change and bad luck | Carolyn Gramling | August 27, 2020 | Science News
So, while local materials may have delivered the bulk of Earth’s water, the oceans were likely topped off a bit later by collisions with remote space rocks.
Earth’s building blocks may have had far more water than previously thought | Christopher Crockett | August 27, 2020 | Science News
In particular, models have a hard time reproducing what happens to an MJO when it hits Southeast Asia’s mix of islands and ocean known as the Maritime Continent.
Improved three-week weather forecasts could save lives from disaster | Alexandra Witze | August 27, 2020 | Science News
Your house in the redwoods, by the creek and ocean, lasted nearly 19 years.
We Lost Our Home to a Wildfire | Wallace J. Nichols | August 25, 2020 | Outside Online
The regular eruption of volcanoes along the rift and new insights into the break up of continents adds to the belief that the continent may be splitting to form a new ocean.
Scientists say a new ocean will form in Africa as the continent continues to split into two | Uwagbale Edward-Ekpu | August 13, 2020 | Quartz

These brave souls took an icy dip in the ocean to ring in 2015 and raise money for charity.
Diving Into 2015 With Polar Bear Plunge Extremists | James Joiner | January 1, 2015 | THE DAILY BEAST
Miles of Soviet era housing projects sat along on the ocean.
Cuban Hip-Hop Was Born in Alamar | Daniel Levin | December 26, 2014 | THE DAILY BEAST
Fidel jumped out and hopped into the ocean without getting wet.
The Life and Hard Times Of The Family A Cuban Defector Left Behind | Brin-Jonathan Butler | December 19, 2014 | THE DAILY BEAST
Opposite is a red-brick monastery leaning like an ocean liner in the snow.
Russia’s Gold Digger Academy | Peter Pomerantsev | November 11, 2014 | THE DAILY BEAST
The real story of who killed bin Laden may have gone to the bottom of the ocean or been plowed back into the dirt in Abbottabad.
Bin Laden ‘Shooter’ Story Is FUBAR, Special Ops Sources Say | Shane Harris | November 7, 2014 | THE DAILY BEAST
They are so rich in harmony, so weird, so wild, that when you hear them you are like a sea-weed cast upon the bosom of the ocean.
Music-Study in Germany | Amy Fay
His soul was tossed on the billows of a tempestuous ocean, in the midst of which he saw his father perishing.
The Pastor's Fire-side Vol. 3 of 4 | Jane Porter
Monsieur Farival thought that Victor should have been taken out in mid-ocean in his earliest youth and drowned.
The Awakening and Selected Short Stories | Kate Chopin
But this port (to obviate misunderstanding) is not on the ocean lying eastward, but on that gulf which I have called French bay.
The Jesuit Relations and Allied Documents, Vol. II: Acadia, 1612-1614 | Various
The common law is therefore always slowly changing like the ocean and is never at rest.
Putnam's Handy Law Book for the Layman | Albert Sidney Bolles

British Dictionary definitions for ocean

ocean

/ (ˈəʊʃən) /

noun

a very large stretch of sea, esp one of the five oceans of the world, the Atlantic, Pacific, Indian, Arctic, and Antarctic
the body of salt water covering approximately 70 per cent of the earth's surface

a huge quantity or expanse: an ocean of replies
literary the sea

Origin of ocean

C13: via Old French from Latin ōceanus, from Greek ōkeanos Oceanus

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 ocean

ocean

[ ō′shən ]

The continuous body of salt water that covers 72 percent of the Earth's surface. The average salinity of ocean water is approximately three percent. The deepest known area of the ocean, at 11,034 m (36,192 ft) is the Mariana Trench, located in the western Pacific Ocean.
Any of the principal divisions of this body of water, including the Atlantic, Pacific, Indian, and Arctic Oceans.

usage For ocean

The word ocean refers to one of the Earth's four distinct, large areas of salt water, the Pacific, Atlantic, Indian, and Arctic Oceans. The word can also mean the entire network of water that covers almost three quarters of our planet. It comes from the Greek Okeanos, a river believed to circle the globe. The word sea can also mean the vast ocean covering most of the world. But it more commonly refers to large landlocked or almost landlocked salty waters smaller than the great oceans, such as the Mediterranean Sea or the Bering Sea. Sailors have long referred to all the world's waters as the seven seas. Although the origin of this phrase is not known for certain, many people believe it referred to the Red Sea, the Mediterranean Sea, the Persian Gulf, the Black Sea, the Adriatic Sea, the Caspian Sea, and the Indian Ocean, which were the waters of primary interest to Europeans before Columbus.

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