adjective
Etymology
Origin of seagoing
Explanation
When something is described as seagoing, it's meant to travel in the ocean. A seagoing vessel might be an ocean liner, a submarine, or even a sturdy rowboat. Your inflatable pool toy is probably not seagoing, but the ferry that takes you to a remote Maine island is. Someone who works on a ship or embarks on an ocean voyage can also be described with this adjective: "My ancestors were all seagoing people, so it makes no sense that I always get seasick on boats."
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.
Larger than 22,000 football fields, it handles transit each year of around 267 million tonnes of goods and is used by around 20,000 seagoing vessels and 50,000 inland vessels, according to its website.
From Barron's • Apr. 10, 2026
Shipping traffic remains throttled in the Strait of Hormuz, a trade route off Iran’s coast that fully a third of the world’s seagoing oil exports traverse in a normal year.
From Slate • Mar. 11, 2026
“Our wreck suggests a seagoing exchange was conducted west out of Syria and Canaan to southern Cyprus, Crete and other Greek lands.”
From New York Times • Jun. 20, 2024
Before it was found, there were no known wrecks of seagoing ships dating from the 11th to 14th Centuries in English waters.
From BBC • Jun. 6, 2024
A few wind- whipped and decrepit Victorian mansions, remnants of a lost era of seagoing optimism, loomed out of the snowfall on the town’s sporadic hills.
From "Snow Falling on Cedars: A Novel" by David Guterson
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.
