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: -æd͡ʒɪk

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.

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
• 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.

See also

• benthic
• oceanic
• planktonic

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