Pacific Ocean

American  

[puh-sif-ik oh-shuhn] / pəˈsɪf ɪk ˈoʊ ʃən /

Often the Pacific

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).

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Pacific Ocean British  

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)

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Pacific Ocean Cultural  

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

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Etymology

Origin of Pacific Ocean

First recorded in 1560–70

Example Sentences

The protest marked a year since the fire ignited in the Pacific Palisades on 7 January 2025, tearing through the wealthy coastal community tucked between the Santa Monica Mountains and the Pacific Ocean.

From BBC

The DOJ’s Office of Legal Counsel this summer wrote a separate legal justification for the administration’s strikes on vessels allegedly carrying drugs in the Caribbean and Eastern Pacific Ocean.

From The Wall Street Journal

Both are clearly different from the only cetacean circovirus previously known, beaked whale circovirus, which was identified earlier in a stranded whale from the Pacific Ocean.

From Science Daily

The order targets leases and concessions in Topanga State Park, an 11,525-acre expanse of hills and canyons overlooking the Pacific Ocean that was home to several small businesses before the fire.

From The Wall Street Journal

In 1862 President Abraham Lincoln signed the Pacific Railway Act, authorizing two railroad companies to lay tracks from the Missouri River to the Pacific Ocean.

From The Wall Street Journal