Word.ws English Dictionary

hycean

/ˈhaɪʃən/

hycean adjective: having a water-based ocean that covers the entire planet, and an atmosphere rich in hydrogen.

Adjective

hycean (not comparable)

  1. (neologism) Having a water-based ocean that covers the entire planet, and an atmosphere rich in hydrogen.
    • With densities between those of rocky super-Earths and more extended mini-Neptunes, Hycean planets can be optimal candidates in the search for exoplanetary habitability and may be abundant in the exoplanet population.2021 August, Nikku Madhusudhan, Anjali A. A. Piette, Savvas Constantinou, “Habitability and Biosignatures of Hycean Worlds”, in Astrophysical Journal
    • It's thought that the new classification could accelerate the search for life outside our Solar System for one simple reason: planets that fulfil the criteria to be "Hycean" already dominate the known exoplanet population, which is approaching 4,500.2021 August 25, Jamie Carter, “Is Alien Life Hiding In Plain Sight? New Class Of 'Hycean' Planet Is Where We Should Look, Say Scientists”, in Forbes

Examples of hycean in a sentence

  • And learning more about Hycean planets could help scientists find biosignatures, or signs of life, outside of our solar system in the near future.2021 August 26, Ashley Strickland, CNN:
  • These hydrogen-rich ocean worlds, or hycean worlds, may be habitable.2021 September 2, Joshua Colwell, Adrienne Dove, James Cooney, “Hycean Worlds and Nudging Asteroids”, in Walkabout the Galaxy:

Origin of hycean

Blend of hydrogen + ocean. Coined in 2021.

Questions about hycean

What does hycean mean?
Hycean means having a water-based ocean that covers the entire planet, and an atmosphere rich in hydrogen.
How do you use hycean in a sentence?
And learning more about Hycean planets could help scientists find biosignatures, or signs of life, outside of our solar system in the near future.
What part of speech is hycean?
Hycean is an adjective.
How do you pronounce hycean?
Hycean is pronounced /ˈhaɪʃən/.

Words near hycean in the dictionary

  1. hybristic
  2. hybristophile
  3. hybristophiles
  4. hybristophilia
  5. hycanthone
  6. hycean
  7. Hyche
  8. Hyches
  9. hyclate
  10. hyclates
  11. Hycsos

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: hycean (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:

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