sea serpent

American  

noun

1. an enormous, imaginary, snakelike or dragonlike marine animal.

2. Astronomy. Sea Serpent, the constellation Hydra.

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sea serpent British  

noun

1. a huge legendary creature of the sea resembling a snake or dragon

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Etymology

Origin of sea serpent

First recorded in 1640–50

Example Sentences

Near the coast of Norway, Magnus depicts a bright-red sea serpent attacking a ship that tilts as though it’s being taken under.

From National Geographic • Dec. 28, 2023

While exploring an Arctic mountaintop in 2008, paleontologists unearthed a small skeleton that resembled a coiled sea serpent imprinted into a slab of 240 million-year-old rock.

From New York Times • Jun. 1, 2023

This is balanced with all of the aforementioned struggles like finding a mythical sea serpent or perfecting a radical kind of surgery.

From The Verge • May 12, 2022

It will still showcase “Old Chiller,” the nearly hundred-year-old AC system — green as a sea serpent and almost as big — that once freshened the air at the Huntington Library.

From Los Angeles Times • Aug. 10, 2021

The Athena and Demeter teams were having a chariot race around the track, and over at the canoe lake some kids in a Greek trireme were fighting a large orange sea serpent.

From "The Battle of the Labyrinth" by Rick Riordan