Word.ws English Dictionary

Salish Sea

Salish Sea proper noun: a marginal sea of the Pacific Ocean, split between British Columbia, Canada and Washington, United States. Surrounded by Washington State to the southeast, south, and southwest, the British Columbia mainland to the northeast, and Vancouver Island to the northwest; opening to the west onto the Pacific Ocean, and leading north into the Inside Passage.

Proper noun

Salish Sea

  1. A marginal sea of the Pacific Ocean, split between British Columbia, Canada and Washington, United States. Surrounded by Washington State to the southeast, south, and southwest, the British Columbia mainland to the northeast, and Vancouver Island to the northwest; opening to the west onto the Pacific Ocean, and leading north into the Inside Passage.

Origin of Salish Sea

Salish + sea. Coined by American marine biologist Bert Webber in 1988. Named after the indigenous Salish people who inhabit the region. Coined in order to have a common name for the regional waters of Georgia Strait, Strait of Juan de Fuca, and Puget Sound.

Questions about Salish Sea

What does Salish Sea mean?
Salish Sea means a marginal sea of the Pacific Ocean, split between British Columbia, Canada and Washington, United States. Surrounded by Washington State to the southeast, south, and southwest, the British Columbia mainland to the northeast, and Vancouver Island to the northwest; opening to the west onto the Pacific Ocean, and leading north into the Inside Passage.
What part of speech is Salish Sea?
Salish Sea is a proper noun.

Words near Salish Sea in the dictionary

  1. Salisbury steak
  2. Salisbury steaks
  3. Salisbury West
  4. Salisbury's cure
  5. Salish
  6. Salish Sea
  7. Salish Wool Dog
  8. Salish Wool Dogs
  9. Salishan
  10. Salishanist
  11. Salishanists

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: Salish Sea (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.

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