Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. An area of open water surrounded by sea ice.
Wiktionary
- n. hydrology A naturally-formed area of open water surrounded by sea ice.
WordNet 3.0
- n. a stretch of open water surrounded by ice (especially in Arctic seas)
Etymologies
- From Russian полынья (polyn’já, "ice hole"), from полый (pólyj, "hollow") (Wiktionary)
- Russian polyn'ya, from polyĭ, open, hollow; see pelə-2 in Indo-European roots. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“A polynya is a large area of open water surrounded by sea ice that is found in the same region year after year.”
“Third: if the polynya was a freak occurence then you wouldn’t expect to see the Beaufort frozen over on July 25th every year. 2006 was just an accident.”
“The goal was to map water conditions in the Ross Sea "polynya," a region of open water surrounded by sea ice, where the plankton blooms every Antarctic summer.”
“Reprogrammed to deal with the unexpectedly strong current, the first seaglider also made its way from the whale breathing hole to the polynya region.”
“Beating back against the ocean current by tacking like a sailboat, GOE-3 made its way into the polynya to perform its mapping mission.”
“Sea-ice production in the source region in winter is enhanced within a polynya (the North Water) formed by the persistent southward drift of ice.”
“In the St. Lawrence Island polynya region, changes in regional oceanography due to the position or size of the Gulf of Anadyr gyre are ultimately related to the northward transport of water through the Bering Strait, and to the geostrophic balance within the Arctic Ocean basin.”
“However, it is possible that an enhanced and more energetic polynya could result from warming.”
“The Gulf of Anadyr "cold pool" is maintained by sea-ice production and brine formation in the St. Lawrence Island polynya.”
“The hydrography of the St. Lawrence Island polynya region and the Anadyr region is ultimately related to the northward transport of water through the Bering Strait.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘polynya’.
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I keep forgetting
Words I keep looking up and still keep forgetting the definition of
reify, phthisic, taghairm, makar, sciamachy, chevelure, smaragdine, vicinal, rixatrix, polynya, hamadryad, cloud-built and 5 more...
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♥
ambrosia, inamorata, gossamer, lily-white, hummingbird, roucoulement, poppy, daisy, calypso, lunula, lamb, dove and 1526 more...
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Words for ice and snow
Environmental Ice and Snow
(excluding all the food ice)ice, icicle, frazil, frasil, sleet, slush, snow, flurry, snowfall, freeze, flash-freeze, quick-freeze and 618 more...
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Polyps
adularescence, scanlation, blowsabella, vantage-loaf, shinplaster, polynya
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Hedgepiglet
Words for things both tangible and nonanthropic
rorqual, vellus, wrasse, rainbow bee-eater, tinkershire, lemonquat, boomslang, tufted vetch, cubeb, nipplefruit, madapple, wad and 447 more...
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Random
These are just some random words that I might find a list for someday.
troglodytism, chinkle, vasculum, sabz, cucullus, tricornigerous, cuboctahedron, eruca, gamp, pilum, taha, angelhood and 243 more...
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titular words
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Words of the Day
glabella, chirotony, nook-shotten, crapehanger, filemot, swirlie, egosurf, lexiphanicism, Ruritanian, stichometry, chrononaut, faldstool and 1991 more...
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Geology Words
The descriptive science described.
earth, lithosphere, mineral, convection, heat flow, ore, deep time, fossil, formation, rock, tectonics, extinction and 281 more...
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rememberers
prolix, ageusia, animadversion, anodyne, antic, arabesque, beadle, brachymetropia, colophon, desquamation, diaphoresis, diegesis and 3248 more...
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words i must use at some point in my ...
apricity, splanchnic, anosmic, quincunx, cynosure, lacuna, senescence, crepuscule, ataraxia, dehiscence, quixotic, halitosis and 2 more...
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Arctic
cloud-berg, calf, icefall, polynya, lead, growler, icescape, pogonip, sconce, nilas, burga, aufeis and 10 more...
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limnolia
lakes, ponds, etc.
vernal pool, spring, pond, lake, pool, basin, swimming hole, lagoon, liman, well, oxbow, loch and 13 more...
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Ice Ice Baby
Geographical and weather-related ice formations and phenomena.
frazil, shuga, grease, brash, ice cake, finger rafting, lead, polynya, sea ice, pack ice, ice-blink, ice scour and 88 more...
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perhapsolutely's Words
polyradiculoneuro..., abulia, abubble, abscission, abaft, zareba, abatis, abigail, abiogenesis, ablate, ablaut, abo and 1705 more...
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Words I liked from "Totally Weird an...
"Weird and Wonderful Words" by Erin McKean
autophoby, autological, aspectabund, blandiose, carriwitchet, choronymy, codology, elaqueate, eagre, eutrapely, expergefaction, exonym and 81 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for polynya.

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