pelagic

English

Etymology

From Latin pelagicus (and possibly pelagus); from Ancient Greek πελαγικός (pelagikós), from πέλαγος (pélagos, “sea”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /pəˈlæd͡ʒɪk/, /pɛˈlæd͡ʒɪk/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ædʒɪk

Adjective

pelagic (comparative more pelagic, superlative most pelagic)

1. (biology) Living in the open sea rather than in coastal or inland waters.
   • 1983, Richard Ellis, The Book of Sharks, Knopf, →ISBN, page 13:

     Besides, seeing a shark in an aquarium tank is not the same as seeing a shark in the wild, in its natural, pelagic habitat.

2. Of or pertaining to oceans.
   • 2020, David Farrier, “The Bottle as Hero”, in Footprints, 4th Estate, →ISBN:

     Drifting idly around a broad oceanic arc, the bottle collides softly with tens of thousands of pelagic plastics all colonized by hard-shelled organisms, including barnacles, coralline algae, foraminifera and bivalve molluscs.

Hypernyms

• marine

Hyponyms

• photic, aphotic
• neritic, oceanic
• planktonic
• epipelagic, mesopelagic, bathypelagic, abyssopelagic, hadopelagic
• benthic

Derived terms

• abyssopelagic
• allopelagic
• archipelagic
• bathypelagic
• chimopelagic
• epipelagic
• eupelagic
• hadopelagic
• hemipelagic
• mesopelagic
• micropelagic
• nyctipelagic
• pelagic trawl
• pelagic zone
• semipelagic

 

Translations

living in the open sea

• Bulgarian: морски (bg) (morski), океански (bg) (okeanski)
• Catalan: pelàgic
• Dutch: pelagisch (nl)
• Finnish: pelaginen (fi)
• French: pélagique (fr)
• Galician: peláxico (gl)
• German: pelagisch (de)
• Italian: pelagico (it)
• Japanese: 外洋性の (gaiyōsēno)
• Korean: 원양 (ko) (wonyang)
• Portuguese: pelágico (pt)
• Spanish: pelágico (es)

Noun

pelagic (plural pelagics)

1. (biology) Any organism that lives in the open sea rather than in coastal or inland waters.

Romanian

Etymology

Borrowed from French pélagique.

Adjective

pelagic m or n (feminine singular pelagică, masculine plural pelagici, feminine and neuter plural pelagice)

1. pelagic

Declension

Declension of pelagic

		singular			plural
		masculine	neuter	feminine	masculine	neuter	feminine
nominative/ accusative	indefinite	pelagic		pelagică	pelagici	pelagice
	definite	pelagicul		pelagica	pelagicii	pelagicele
genitive/ dative	indefinite	pelagic		pelagice	pelagici	pelagice
	definite	pelagicului		pelagicei	pelagicilor	pelagicelor