Skip to content
Myth & LegendGreekEnglish

Ocean

A vast body of salt water.

The Greek roots

Ὠκεανός
Ōkeanós
the world-river Oceanus

Literally: the encircling river

The story of the word

Oceanus was the great river the Greeks believed encircled the whole earth — now the name of the seas themselves.

The same roots elsewhere

Other languages reached for exactly the same Greek pieces.

In a sentence

The ocean stretched unbroken to the horizon.

Built on the same root

More from Myth & Legend