Okhotsk

American  

[oh-kotsk, uh-khawtsk] / oʊˈkɒtsk, ʌˈxɔtsk /

noun

1. Sea of Okhotsk, an arm of the North Pacific Ocean enclosed by the Kamchatka Peninsula, the Kurile Islands, Sakhalin, and the Russian Federation in Asia. 582,000 square miles (1,507,380 square kilometers); greatest depth, 10,554 feet (3,217 meters).

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Okhotsk British  

/ aˈɔxtsk, ˈəʊkɒtsk /

noun

1. part of the NW Pacific, surrounded by the Kamchatka Peninsula, the Kurile Islands, Sakhalin Island, and the E coast of Siberia. Area: 1 589 840 sq km (613 838 sq miles)

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Etymology

Origin of Okhotsk

First recorded in 1815–20; from Russian Okhótsk, equivalent to Okhot(a) the name of a river, probably from Evenki (Lamut) okat “river” + -sk, Russian noun suffix used in placenames

Example Sentences

Last year, Russian Mikhail Pichugin was rescued after spending more than two months adrift in a small inflatable boat in the Sea of Okhotsk, to the east of Russia.

From BBC • Mar. 16, 2025

Russian fishery managers set the quota at more than 2 million metric tons of pollock, which has been pulled largely from the Okhotsk and Bering seas, according to Intrafish, a seafood industry publication.

From Seattle Times • Dec. 22, 2023

The Pacific Ocean and the Sea of Okhotsk make up the Kamchatka Peninsula's eastern and western coastlines.

From Reuters • Mar. 27, 2023

Some places actually saw algal blooms weaken over time, including the California Current, parts of the northeastern North Atlantic and the Okhotsk Sea in the North Pacific.

From Scientific American • Mar. 2, 2023

Navy divers, or "frogmen," used a mini-submarine to place a "pod" on an important Soviet underwater communications cable in the Sea of Okhotsk, north of Japan and near the eastern coast of the Soviet Union.

From "Spies: The Secret Showdown Between America and Russia" by Marc Favreau