Pacific Ocean

Often the Pacific

[puh-sif-ik oh-shuhn]

noun

1. the largest of the world’s five principal oceans, bordered by the American continents, Asia, and Australia, with its deepest section in the Mariana Trench: divided by the equator into the North Pacific Ocean and the South Pacific Ocean. 62,455,900 square miles (161,760,000 square kilometers).

Pacific Ocean

noun

1. the world's largest and deepest ocean, lying between Asia and Australia and North and South America: almost landlocked in the north, linked with the Arctic Ocean only by the Bering Strait, and extending to Antarctica in the south; has exceptionally deep trenches, and a large number of volcanic and coral islands. Area: about 165 760 000 sq km (64 000 000 sq miles). Average depth: 4215 m (14 050 ft). Greatest depth: Challenger Deep (in the Marianas Trench), 11 033 m (37 073 ft). Greatest width: (between Panama and Mindanao, Philippines) 17 066 km (10 600 miles)

Pacific Ocean

1. The largest ocean in the world, separating Asia and Australia on the west from North America and South America on the east.

Word History and Origins

Origin of Pacific Ocean¹

First recorded in 1560–70

Example Sentences

The Atacama desert in Chile sits long and lean, sandwiched between the Andes Mountains and the Pacific Ocean.

Read more on BBC

After months of slight temperature shifts in the Pacific Ocean, La Niña has officially returned — the climate pattern that typically drives drought in Southern California.

Read more on Los Angeles Times

La Nina is a naturally occurring climate pattern that cools surface temperatures in the central and eastern equatorial Pacific Ocean.

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When the lake overflows, the water can flood roads and homes as it heads down the Mendenhall River and eventually to the Pacific Ocean.

Read more on The Wall Street Journal

An earlier version of this article contained a map that incorrectly labeled it as the Pacific Ocean.

Read more on The Wall Street Journal