pelagic means living in the open sea rather than in coastal or inland waters. It carries an Arena rating of 1543, earned across 2 head-to-head judged battles.
Among words judged in Lexicurio's Arena, pelagic ranks #354 of 17,124 for Most Sublime Words, #787 of 17,126 for Most Elegant Words, #2,670 of 17,130 for Most Beautiful Words, #3,998 of 17,149 for Most Exacting Words.
pelagic is pronounced /pəˈlæd͡ʒɪk/.
Why “pelagic” is a great word
Relating to or inhabiting the open sea, far from the coast and the seabed. From Latin pelagicus, from Ancient Greek πελαγικός (pelagikós), from πέλαγος (pélagos, "sea"), first attested in English in the 1650s. Unlike "benthic," which clings to the dark silt of the ocean floor, or "coastal," which remains tethered to the restless edge of the land, pelagic defines the sheer, unbordered expanse of the water column itself. It is the sunlit shimmer of a tuna's arc at dawn, the cold, ink-black glide of a squid in the midwater void, and the silver flash of a flying fish arcing through nothing but air and spray—a reminder that most of the world is horizon, not harbor, a trackless and breathing desert of water.
Etymology
From Latin pelagicus (and possibly pelagus); from Ancient Greek πελαγικός (pelagikós), from πέλαγος (pélagos, “sea”). By surface analysis, -pelag + -ic.
adj
- Living in the open sea rather than in coastal or inland waters.e.g.“Besides, seeing a shark in an aquarium tank is not the same as seeing a shark in the wild, in its natural, pelagic habitat.” — 1983, Richard Ellis, The Book of Sharks, Knopf, →ISBN, page 13:
- Of or pertaining to oceans.
noun
- Any organism that lives in the open sea rather than in coastal or inland waters.
Definitions & examples from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 3.0).
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