sea

/siː/

More pronunciations (1)Fewer pronunciations

obsolete/seɪ/

sea noun: a large body of salt water.

Image: World Wide Gifts, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Noun (1)

sea (plural seas)

A large body of salt water.
- God moves in a myſterious way, / His wonders to perform; / He plants his footſteps in the ſea, / And rides upon the ſtorm.1780, William Cowper, “Light Shining out of Darkneſs”, in Twenty-ſix Letters on Religious Subjects […] To which are added Hymns […] , 4th edition, page 252
Synonyms:

ogin, briny, mere
1. The ocean; the continuous body of salt water covering a majority of the Earth's surface.
  - These ſhal ye eat, of all that are in the waters: whatſoeuer hath finnes and ſcales in the waters, in the ſeas, and in the riuers, them ſhall ye eate.1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Leviticus 11:9, signature [K5], recto, column 2
  - At length the universal Wreck appear'd,/ To Cæsar's self, ev'n worthy to be fear'd./ Why all these Pains, this Toil of Fate (he cries)/ This Labour of the Seas, and Earth, and Skies?/ All Nature, and the Gods at once alarm'd,/ Against my little Boat and me are arm'd.1719, Nicholas Rowe, “Book V”, in Lucan's Pharsalia: Translated into English Verse, Dublin: James Carson, page 183
2. A body of salt water smaller than an ocean, generally forming part of, or connecting with, an ocean or a larger sea.
  - The Mediterranean Sea, the Caribbean Sea, the Sea of Crete, etc.
A lake, especially if large or if salty or brackish.
- The Caspian Sea, the Sea of Galilee, the Salton Sea, etc.
A single wave; billow.
- One ſea broke away the ſpare yards and ſpars out of the ſtarboard main chains. Another heavy ſea broke into the ſhip and ſtove all the boats. Several caſks of beer, that had been laſhed upon deck, were broke looſe and waſhed overboard, and it was not without great difficulty and riſk that we were...1792, William Bligh, chapter II, in A Voyage to the South Sea, […] in His Majesty’s Ship The Bounty, […], London: […] George Nicol, […], →OCLC, page 14
- 'If they buy three cords of birch logs,' said the witch, 'but they must be exact measure—and no bargaining about the price, and if they throw overboard the one cord of logs, piece by piece, when the first sea comes, and the other cord, piece by piece, when the second sea comes, and the third cord...1881, P. Chr. Asbjörnsen [i.e., Peter Christen Asbjørnsen], “Mackerel Trolling”, in H. L. Brækstad, transl., Round the Yule Log. Norwegian Folk and Fairy Tales, London: Sampson Low, Marston, Searle...
The swell of the sea, especially when high or rough.
- “Where can they be?” he cried. “They cannot have gone down, for there has been no sea, and they were afloat after the yacht sank—I saw them all.”1913, Edgar Rice Burroughs, The Return of Tarzan, New York: Ballantine Books, published 1963, page 150
- There was a small sea rising with the wind coming up from the east and at noon the old man's left hand was uncramped.1952 September 1, Ernest Hemingway, The Old Man and the Sea, New York, N.Y.: Charles Scribner’s Sons, →OCLC, page 64
(attributive, in-compounds) Living or used in or on the sea; of, near, or like the sea.
- Seaman, sea gauge, sea monster, sea horse, sea level, seaworthy, seaport, seaboard, etc.
(figuratively) Anything resembling the vastness or turbulence of the sea in mass, size or quantity.
- To be, or not to be, that is the queſtion, / Whether tis nobler in the minde to ſuffer / The ſlings and arrowes of outragious fortune, / Or to take Armes againſt a ſea of troubles, / And by oppoſing, end them, to die to ſleepe / No more, and by a ſleepe, to ſay we end / The hart-ake, and the...c. 1599–1602 (date written), William Shakespeare, The Tragicall Historie of Hamlet, Prince of Denmarke: […] (Second Quarto), London: […] I[ames] R[oberts] for N[icholas] L[ing] […], published 1604...
- Secondly, in terms of geopolitics Central Asia was a huge sea of barbarians set in the midst of interlocking continents. Thanks to its border on the Siberian forest in the north, it was open to barbarian incomers who would upset existing polities and set migrations going.1980, Patria Crone, Slaves on Horseback: The Evolution of the Islamic Polity, Cambridge University Press, →ISBN
A constant flux of gluons splitting into quarks, which annihilate to produce further gluons.
A large, dark plain of rock; a mare.
- The Apollo 11 mission landed in the Sea of Tranquility.
A very large lake of liquid hydrocarbon.

Proper noun (1) capitalized: SEA

SEA

(abbreviation) Abbreviation of Seattle.
(abbreviation, initialism) Initialism of Southeast Asia.
(abbreviation, initialism) Initialism of Single European Act.

Noun (2) capitalized: SEA

SEA (uncountable)

(abbreviation, initialism) Initialism of Strategic Environmental Assessment.

Proper noun (2) capitalized: Sea

Sea (countable and uncountable, plural Seas)

A surname.
A hamlet in Ilminster parish, South Somerset district, Somerset, England (OS grid ref ST3413).

Proper noun (3) capitalized: Sea

the Sea

Synonym of Mediterranean Sea.

Synonyms:

Mediterranean Sea

sea meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu

sea in Hindi

body of water: सागर sāgar, समुद्र samudra, समुंदर samundar, अम्बुधि ambudhi, बहर bahar, दरिया dariyā

sea in Tamil

body of water: கடல் kaṭal, ஆழி āḻi

sea in Marathi

body of water: समुद्र samudra, सागर sāgar

sea in Urdu

body of water: سَمَنْدَر samandar, سَمُنْدَر samundar, بَحْر bahr

More languagesFewer languages

sea in Bengali: সাগর śagor, সমুদ্র śomudro
sea in Telugu: సముద్రం samudraṁ, కడలి kaḍali
sea in Malayalam: കടൽ kaṭal
sea in Kannada: ಅಮ್ಬುಧಿ ambudhi, ಸಮುದ್ರ samudra, ಕಡಲು kaḍalu
sea in Punjabi: ਸਮੁੰਦਰ samundar
sea in Gujarati: સમુદ્ર samudra, દરિયો dariyo
sea in Odia: ସାଗର sāgara, ସମୁଦ୍ର samudra
sea in Sanskrit: समुद्र samudra, धीर dhīra
sea in Sinhala: මුහුද muhuda
sea in Assamese: সাগৰ xagor
sea in Nepali: सागर sāgar
sea in Pashto: بحر bahr
sea in Tagalog: dagat
sea in Arabic: بَحْر baḥr, يَمّ yamm, بَحَر baḥər, بحر bḥar
sea in Malay: laut, tasik, samudera, segara
sea in Indonesian: laut
sea in Persian: دَرْیا daryâ, بَحْر bahr, زُو zow, زِراه zerâh
sea in Thai: ทะเล tá-lee, ห้วงน้ำ hûuang-náam, สมุทฺท
sea in Vietnamese: biển, bể
sea in Myanmar: ပင်လယ် panglai, အဏ္ဏဝါ anna.wa
Sindhi: سَمُنڊ samũḍ
Dhivehi: މޫދު mūdu
Kashmiri: سۆدُر sodur

Examples of sea in a sentence

There is something in being near the sea, like the confines of eternity.1833, William Hazlitt, “Notes of a Journey Through France and Italy”, in Greenbank's Periodical Library, volume I, chapter 1, page 173:
One ſea broke away the ſpare yards and ſpars out of the ſtarboard main chains.1792, William Bligh, chapter II, in A Voyage to the South Sea, […] in His Majesty’s Ship The Bounty, […], London: […] George Nicol, […]...
The beck is crossed by a pretty ford and a number of bridges, and in spring the cottages look out over a dancing sea of daffodils.1980, AA Book of British Villages, Drive Publications Ltd, page 102:
In the last two decades, North Korea has on various occasions conducted highly provocative missile and nuclear tests and promised to turn Seoul into a sea of fire.2013 April 9, Andrei Lankov, “Stay Cool. Call North Korea’s Bluff.”, in New York Times:

All 40 example sentences with sea

Synonyms of sea

Forms of sea

Noun
plural	seas
Proper noun
plural	Seas

Plural of sea: seas

Origin of sea

Inherited from Middle English see, from Old English sǣ, from Proto-West Germanic *saiwi (“body of water”), from Proto-Germanic *saiwiz, itself either: * Derived from Proto-Indo-European *sh₂ey-wo- (“to be fierce, afflict”). Related to Latin saevus (“wild, fierce”), Tocharian B saiwe (“itch”), and Latvian sievs, sīvs (“sharp, biting”). More at sore. * Derived from Proto-Germanic *sīhwaną (“to percolate, filter”), from Proto-Indo-European *seykʷ-. Cognates Cognate with Yola zea, zee (“sea”), North Frisian See, sia, siie (“sea; lake”), Saterland Frisian See, Säi (“sea”), West Frisian see (“sea”), Cimbrian and Mòcheno sea (“lake”), Dutch zee (“sea”), German and German Low German See (“sea”), Limburgish Sië, zieë (“sea, ocean; lake”), Luxembourgish Séi (“lake”), West Flemish zji (“sea; seaside”), Danish sø (“sea; lake”), Faroese sjógvur (“sea; big wave”), Icelandic sjár, sjór, sær (“sea”), Norwegian Bokmål and Norwegian Nynorsk sjø (“sea, ocean; lake”), Swedish sjö (“sea; lake; big wave”), Gothic 𐍃𐌰𐌹𐍅𐍃 (saiws, “lake, sea; marshland”).

Phrases with sea

173 more phrasesFewer phrases

Words that rhyme with sea

48 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about sea

What does sea mean?: Sea means a large body of salt water.
What is sea in Hindi?: Sea in Hindi is सागर (sāgar), समुद्र (samudra), समुंदर (samundar). See Sea meaning in Hindi.
How do you use sea in a sentence?: There is something in being near the sea, like the confines of eternity.
What part of speech is sea?: Sea can be a noun or a proper noun.
How do you pronounce sea?: Sea is pronounced /siː/.
What is the plural of sea?: The plural of sea is seas.

Words near sea in the dictionary

Adapted from Wiktionary: sea (page history and authors); SEA (page history and authors); 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.

Last updated: 2026-09-02

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: En-uk-sea.ogg, LL-Q1860 (eng)-Naomi Persephone Amethyst (NaomiAmethyst)-sea.wav.

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