pelagic

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

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

• Audio (Southern England)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -æd͡ʒɪk

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.

pelagic (plural pelagics)

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

• benthic
• oceanic
• planktonic

Borrowed from French pélagique.

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

1. pelagic