oceanography
Americannoun
noun
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The scientific study of oceans, the life that inhabits them, and their physical characteristics, including the depth and extent of ocean waters, their movement and chemical makeup, and the topography and composition of the ocean floors. Oceanography also includes ocean exploration.
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Also called oceanology
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Etymology
Origin of oceanography
Explanation
Oceanography is the scientific study of the ocean. If you're interested in biology, physics, and sea creatures, you might want to study oceanography. Another way to say oceanography is "marine science." Scientists who specialize in oceanography are called oceanographers, and they focus on specific aspects of the sea which might include the physics of waves and currents or the biology of marine animals and plants. The word oceanography was coined in the mid-1800s, modeled on geography, from ocean and -graphy, "the process of writing or recording."
Vocabulary lists containing oceanography
Earth Science - Middle School
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Earth Science - High School
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Earth Science - Introductory
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
“Experts are eyeing current oceanography reports with a healthy level of concern,” he wrote in an email.
From Los Angeles Times • Apr. 9, 2026
An oceanography professor told ABC it may only have been in the water for a few weeks before it landed at Wharton Beach, where it may have remained buried for 100 years.
From BBC • Oct. 29, 2025
This is "a very clear signature and footprint of a classic Amoc slowdown" says Matthew England, professor of oceanography at the University of South Wales.
From BBC • Jan. 31, 2025
The study also offers another probable mechanism that may have facilitated this recent expansion of Atlantic cownose rays to Bermuda -- oceanography.
From Science Daily • May 20, 2024
He wanted to know the mysteries of the immense blue palace over whose roof he was usually navigating, devoting himself to the study of oceanography, the most recent of sciences.
From Mare Nostrum (Our Sea) A Novel by Jordan, Charlotte Brewster
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
