ocean

noun

Simple meaning

One of the large bodies of water separating the continents.

Pronunciation

Say it like this:

ohshuhn

Say the bold part a little louder.

US device voice

IPA pronunciation (US)

ˈoʊʃən

This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.

IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.

Word Review

Definition

Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.

noun

countable
One of the large bodies of water separating the continents.
figuratively
An immense expanse; any vast space or quantity without apparent limits.
uncountable
Water belonging to an ocean.
A blue colour, like that of the ocean (also called ocean blue).

Word at a Glance

Difficulty: A2 · Elementary
Frequency: Common
Typical Use: Everyday English

Word Aura™

How this word commonly comes across.

Aura for this meaning

This meaning: One of the large bodies of water separating the continents.

Used this way, ocean is a reasonably familiar word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. It usually sounds natural in a wide range of settings.

Emotional tone: Neutral
Formality: Neutral
Intensity: Not strongly marked
How common: Moderately common
Connotation: Matter-of-fact
Usage feel: Neutral and straightforward

Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.

More ways to use ocean

“We spent the whole day swimming in the warm ocean water.”noun

Common Patterns and Combinations

How this word naturally appears with others.

ocean flooropen oceangreat oceanocean waterdeep oceanocean surfaceworld ocean

Tap the highlighted word to open its own entry.

Word Family

Related forms, grouped by how they connect.

Word family

Words built from the same root.

oceanicnounDerived noun
An eastern subfamily of Malayo-Polynesian languages.

Compound terms

Established multiword terms.

ocean tripnounCompound term
An act of traveling by water.
ocean currentnounCompound term
The steady flow of surface ocean water in a prevailing direction.
ocean bottomnounCompound term
The bottom of a sea or ocean.
ocean floornounCompound term
The bottom of a sea or ocean.
ocean linernounCompound term
A large commercial ship (especially one that carries passengers on a regular schedule).
ocean perchnounCompound term
North Atlantic rockfish.

Related words

Connected by subject or meaning, not by word formation.

oceanfrontnounRelated term
Land bordering an ocean.
oceanographynounRelated term
The branch of science dealing with physical and biological aspects of the oceans.
oceanic abyssnounRelated term
A long steep-sided depression in the ocean floor.

More about this wordSynonyms, forms, origin

Synonyms

Sense: one of the large bodies of water separating the continents

sea

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Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.