ocean

[ oh-shuhn ]

noun

1. any part of or the entirety of salt water that covers more than 70 percent of the earth's surface: Compare World Ocean ( def ).

   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.

2. 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.
3. a vast expanse or quantity:

   oceans of opportunity;

   the ocean of people at Woodstock.

ocean

/ ˈəʊʃən /

noun

1. a very large stretch of sea, esp one of the five oceans of the world, the Atlantic, Pacific, Indian, Arctic, and Antarctic
2. the body of salt water covering approximately 70 per cent of the earth's surface
3. a huge quantity or expanse

   an ocean of replies

4. literary.
   the sea

ocean

/ ō′shən /

1. 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.
2. Any of the principal divisions of this body of water, including the Atlantic, Pacific, Indian, and Arctic Oceans.

Other Words From

• o·cean·like adjective
• in·ter·o·cean adjective

Word History and Origins

Origin of ocean¹

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

Word History and Origins

Origin of ocean¹

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

Usage

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.

Example Sentences

And, by warming the oceans, climate change is also setting the stage for supercharged storms, scientists say.

From 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.

From 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.

From Science News

Your house in the redwoods, by the creek and ocean, lasted nearly 19 years.

From 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.

From Quartz

These brave souls took an icy dip in the ocean to ring in 2015 and raise money for charity.

From The Daily Beast

Miles of Soviet era housing projects sat along on the ocean.

From The Daily Beast

Fidel jumped out and hopped into the ocean without getting wet.

From The Daily Beast

Opposite is a red-brick monastery leaning like an ocean liner in the snow.

From 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.

From 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.

From Project Gutenberg

His soul was tossed on the billows of a tempestuous ocean, in the midst of which he saw his father perishing.

From Project Gutenberg

Monsieur Farival thought that Victor should have been taken out in mid-ocean in his earliest youth and drowned.

From Project Gutenberg

But this port (to obviate misunderstanding) is not on the Ocean lying eastward, but on that gulf which I have called French bay.

From Project Gutenberg

The common law is therefore always slowly changing like the ocean and is never at rest.

From Project Gutenberg

Related Words

• sea
• tide