Word.ws English Dictionary

aphotic

Syllables: aphot·ic/eɪˈfəʊtɪk/US/eɪˈfoʊtɪk/

aphotic adjective: having no light, especially no sunlight.

aphotic: having no light, especially no sunlight
Image: Awakening Conscience, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Adjective

aphotic (comparative more aphotic, superlative most aphotic)

  1. Having no light, especially no sunlight.
  2. Describing that part of deep lakes and oceans where less than one per cent of sunlight penetrates and where photosynthesis is not possible.
    • As experiment has shown that light waves capable of effecting chemical changes do not penetrate the water deeper than 400 meters and as the other conditions of assimilation are met above this line, it is proposed to distinguish a diaphanic region including the land and the water to a depth of 400...1894 November–December, E. C. Quereau, “Einleitung in die Geologie als historische Wissenschaft. By Johannes Walther. Jena, 1893–4. [book review]”, in The Journal of Geology, volume II, number 8...
    • We have bacteria classified as aërobic and anaërobic, according as they thrive with or without access of air. We need to classify bacteria as photic and aphotic.1894 July 2, Julius Nelson, The Use of Koch’s Lymph in the Diagnosis of Tuberculosis of Cattle (New Jersey Agricultural College Experiment Station Bulletin; 101), [North Brunswick, N.J.]: [New Jersey...
    Antonyms:
    photic

aphotic meaning in Tamil, Urdu, Bengali and Persian

aphotic in Tamil

ஒளிபுகா, இருள், ஒளியின்மை, ஒளியற்ற, ஒளியின்றி வளரக்கூடிய

aphotic in Urdu

بےنور, تاریک

aphotic in Bengali

আলোহীন, অন্ধকার

aphotic in Persian

having no light, especially no sunlight
بینور binur

Examples of aphotic in a sentence

  • A large lake, for example, will have a surface photic environment, an aphotic system on the lakebed and a coastal system at the land–water interface.2000, Adrian McDonald, “Ecosystems and Their Management”, in Ashley Kent, editor, Reflective Practice in Geography Teaching, London...
  • The deep aphotic zone accounts for the largest portion (90%) of the marine benthic environment.2018, Birte Matthiessen, Franziska Julie Werner, Matthias Paulsen, “Ecological Organization of the Sea”, in Markus Salomon, Till Markus...

Antonyms of aphotic

Forms of aphotic

comparativemore aphotic
superlativemost aphotic

Origin of aphotic

From a- (prefix meaning ‘not; without; opposite of’) + photic.

Words formed from aphotic

Phrases with aphotic

Words that rhyme with aphotic

7 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about aphotic

What does aphotic mean?
Aphotic means having no light, especially no sunlight.
What is aphotic in Tamil?
Aphotic in Tamil is ஒளிபுகா, இருள், ஒளியின்மை. See Aphotic meaning in Tamil.
How do you use aphotic in a sentence?
A large lake, for example, will have a surface photic environment, an aphotic system on the lakebed and a coastal system at the land–water interface.
What part of speech is aphotic?
Aphotic is an adjective.
How do you pronounce aphotic?
Aphotic is pronounced /eɪˈfəʊtɪk/ (UK).

Words near aphotic in the dictionary

  1. aphorizer
  2. aphorizers
  3. aphorizes
  4. aphorizing
  5. aphosphorosis
  6. aphotic
  7. aphotic zone
  8. aphotic zones
  9. aphotometric
  10. aphototactic
  11. aphototropic

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: aphotic (page history and authors); aphotic (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); aphotic (Urdu Wiktionary) (page history and authors); aphotic (Bengali Wiktionary) (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-I learned some phrases-aphotic.wav.

Cite this entry: “aphotic.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/aphotic. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.