oceangoing

American  

[oh-shuhn-goh-ing] / ˈoʊ ʃənˌgoʊ ɪŋ /

Or ocean-going

adjective

1. (of a ship) designed and equipped to travel on the open sea.

2. noting or pertaining to sea transportation.

   oceangoing traffic.

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Etymology

Origin of oceangoing

First recorded in 1880–85; ocean + going

Example Sentences

The war has strangled shipping through the Strait of Hormuz, a U-bend-like chokepoint off the Iranian coast that acts as a highway for more than a third of the world’s oceangoing oil exports each year.

From Slate • Mar. 6, 2026

In the six months ended Wednesday, shares in all three major oceangoing cruise lines were down, lagging the S&P 500 by 19% on average.

From The Wall Street Journal • Jan. 30, 2026

“We do not know if the ship was oceangoing, meaning that it crossed over the North Sea to England,” Dr. Grønnesby said.

From New York Times • May 31, 2024

Runs of salmon and oceangoing trout in Whatcom Creek and its tributaries have largely declined since the incident, though it’s hard to tease out a clear cause-and-effect relationship.

From Seattle Times • Dec. 26, 2023

Geography didn’t catch up to Eratosthenes until true oceangoing ships proved his calculations directly, almost two thousand years after he was born.

From "Circumference" by Nicholas Nicastro

Related Words

• aquatic
• deep-sea
• marine
• naval
• seafaring
• seagoing