SEA

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does sea mean? 

• SEA (noun)
  The noun SEA has 3 senses:

1. a division of an ocean or a large body of salt water partially enclosed by land

2. anything apparently limitless in quantity or volume

3. turbulent water with swells of considerable size

  Familiarity information: SEA used as a noun is uncommon.

 Dictionary entry details 

• SEA (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

A division of an ocean or a large body of salt water partially enclosed by land

Classified under:

Nouns denoting natural objects (not man-made)

Hypernyms ("sea" is a kind of...):

body of water; water (the part of the earth's surface covered with water (such as a river or lake or ocean))

Meronyms (parts of "sea"):

inlet; recess (an arm off of a larger body of water (often between rocky headlands))

bay; embayment (an indentation of a shoreline larger than a cove but smaller than a gulf)

gulf (an arm of a sea or ocean partly enclosed by land; larger than a bay)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "sea"):

South Sea (any sea to the south of the equator (but especially the South Pacific))

Instance hyponyms:

Sargasso Sea (a vast area of the North Atlantic from the West Indies to the Azores that is dense with gulfweed)

Kara Sea (part of the Arctic Ocean to the north of Siberia and to the east of the Barents Sea; icebound most of the year)

Labrador Sea (an arm of the northern Atlantic between Labrador and southern Greenland)

Laptev Sea (part of the Arctic Ocean to the north of Siberia (between the Taimyr Peninsula and the New Siberian Islands) that is icebound most of the year)

Ligurian Sea (an arm of the Mediterranean between northwest Italy and Corsica)

Marmara; Marmara Denizi; Marmora; Sea of Marmara; Sea of Marmora (an inland sea in northwestern Turkey; linked to the Black Sea by the Bosporus and linked to the Aegean by the Dardanelles)

Mediterranean; Mediterranean Sea (the largest inland sea; between Europe and Africa and Asia)

North Sea (an arm of the North Atlantic between the British Isles and Scandinavia; oil was discovered under the North Sea in 1970)

Norwegian Sea (the part of the Atlantic that lies off the Norwegian coast to the north of the North Sea)

Red Sea (a long arm of the Indian Ocean between northeast Africa and Arabia; linked to the Mediterranean at the north end by the Suez Canal)

Ross Sea (an arm of the southern Pacific Ocean in Antarctica)

Aegean; Aegean Sea (an arm of the Mediterranean between Greece and Turkey; a main trade route for the ancient civilizations of Crete and Greece and Rome and Persia)

East Sea; Sea of Japan (an arm of the Pacific bordered by Japan, Korea, North Korea, and Russia)

Sea of Okhotsk (an arm of the Pacific to the east of Asia)

South China Sea (a tropical arm of the Pacific Ocean near southeastern Asia subject to frequent typhoons)

Tasman Sea (an arm of the southern Pacific Ocean between southeastern Australia and New Zealand)

Timor Sea (an arm of the eastern Indian Ocean between Timor and northern Australia)

Tyrrhenian Sea (an arm of the Mediterranean between Italy and the islands of Corsica and Sardinia and Sicily)

Weddell Sea (an arm of the south Atlantic in Antarctica to the east of the Antarctic Peninsula)

Huang Hai; Yellow Sea (part of the Pacific off the east coast of Asia)

Ionian Sea (an arm of the Mediterranean Sea between western Greece and southern Italy)

Adriatic; Adriatic Sea (an arm of the Mediterranean between Slovenia and Croatia and Montenegro and Albania on the east and Italy on the west)

Arabian Sea (a northwestern arm of the Indian Ocean between India and Arabia)

Arafura Sea (a part of the western Pacific Ocean to the north of Australia and to the south of New Guinea and the eastern islands of Indonesia)

Baffin Bay (a body of water between Greenland and northeastern Canada; connected with the Arctic Ocean to the north and with the Atlantic Ocean (via the Labrador Sea) to the south; icebound in winter)

Baltic; Baltic Sea (a sea in northern Europe; stronghold of the Russian navy)

Barents Sea (the part of the Arctic Ocean to the north of Norway and Russia)

Beaufort Sea (part of the Arctic Ocean to the northeast of Alaska)

Bering Sea (part of the North Pacific between Alaska and Siberia; connected to the Arctic Ocean by the Bering Strait)

Bismarck Sea (an arm of the South Pacific to the southwest of the Bismarck Archipelago)

Black Sea; Euxine Sea (a sea between Europe and Asia; a popular resort area of eastern Europeans)

Caribbean; Caribbean Sea (an arm of the Atlantic Ocean between North and South America; the origin of the Gulf stream)

Chukchi Sea (part of the Arctic Ocean just to the north of the Bering Strait)

Coral Sea (an arm of the South Pacific to the northeast of Australia)

East China Sea (part of the Pacific Ocean near eastern Asia)

Greenland Sea (part of the Arctic Ocean to the north of Iceland)

Hudson Bay (an inland sea in northern Canada)

Inland Sea (an arm of the Pacific Ocean in southern Japan; surrounded by the islands of Honshu and Shikoku and Kyushu and linked to the Sea of Japan by a narrow channel; the chief port is Hiroshima)

Irish Sea (an arm of the North Atlantic between Great Britain and Ireland)

Holonyms ("sea" is a part of...):

hydrosphere (the watery layer of the earth's surface; includes water vapor)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Anything apparently limitless in quantity or volume

Classified under:

Nouns denoting quantities and units of measure

Synonyms:

ocean; sea

Hypernyms ("sea" is a kind of...):

large indefinite amount; large indefinite quantity (an indefinite quantity that is above the average in size or magnitude)

Sense 3

Meaning:

Turbulent water with swells of considerable size

Classified under:

Nouns denoting natural phenomena

Context example:

heavy seas

Hypernyms ("sea" is a kind of...):

turbulent flow (flow in which the velocity at any point varies erratically)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "sea"):

head sea (a sea in which the waves are running directly against the course of the ship)

 Context examples 

Next time I came back from sea, I heard of her marriage.

(The Return of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

I knew very well that the owner would think that they had lost their bearings in the haze, and had drifted off out to sea.

(The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

And this is the story of Keesh, who lived long ago on the rim of the polar sea.

(Love of Life and Other Stories, by Jack London)

When is he goin' to sea again?

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

Having therefore consulted with my wife, and some of my acquaintance, I determined to go again to sea.

(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)

I never had much opinion of the sea air.

(Emma, by Jane Austen)

The storm had evidently broken during the night, though a huge sea was still running and a stiff wind blowing.

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)

“No,” replied Em'ly, shaking her head, “I'm afraid of the sea.”

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

I am all in a sea of wonders.

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)

And on the last night of the second week they topped White Pass and dropped down the sea slope with the lights of Skaguay and of the shipping at their feet.

(The Call of the Wild, by Jack London)