Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • The waters surrounding the North Pole between North America and Eurasia. The smallest ocean in the world, it is covered by pack ice through much of the year.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • proper noun The smallest of the five oceans of the Earth, on and around the North Pole, bordered by the three continents of Asia, Europe and North America.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun ice covered waters surrounding the North Pole; mostly covered with solid ice or with ice floes and icebergs

Etymologies

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Examples

  • The heat that is being stored-up in the ice-free Arctic Ocean, which is about 2 degrees Fahrenheit above normal, is getting pumped into the atmosphere.

    Dr. Reese Halter: Wild Weather Unleashed as Arctic Thaws Dr. Reese Halter 2011

  • The heat that is being stored-up in the ice-free Arctic Ocean, which is about 2 degrees Fahrenheit above normal, is getting pumped into the atmosphere.

    Dr. Reese Halter: Wild Weather Unleashed as Arctic Thaws Dr. Reese Halter 2011

  • For the THC, the overflow of cold and dense water from the Nordic Seas into the Atlantic and the inflow of Atlantic water to the Nordic Seas and the Arctic Ocean are the most important factors.

    Ocean processes of climatic importance in the Arctic 2009

  • Surely the Arctic Ocean is a place where oil and gas development are not appropriate.

    Riki Ott: The Human Cost of Bush's Arctic Policy 2009

  • Polar bears, walruses, seals, whales and ocean-going birds like eider ducks and loons call the Arctic Ocean home.

    Bush-era Policies 2009

  • The total freshwater discharge from the land area into the Arctic Ocean is the sum of river discharge into the ocean, glacier and ice sheet discharge, subsurface water flows (mainly from the freeze – thaw cycle in the active layer of permafrost soils), and groundwater flows.

    Freshwater discharge in the Arctic 2009

  • Back then, the forest extended all the way to the Arctic Ocean, which is now completely surrounded by tundra.

    Our Climate Numbers Are a Big Old Mess Patrick Michaels 2008

  • Background: The Arctic Ocean is the smallest of the world's five oceans (after the Pacific Ocean, Atlantic Ocean, Indian Ocean, and the recently delimited Southern Ocean).

    Arctic Ocean 2008

  • The effect seems to be less evaporative cooling and mixing of the open portions of the Arctic Ocean, which is making the ocean surface considerably warmer than normal.

    Unthreaded #16 « Climate Audit 2007

  • Although it's the smallest -- roughly 5,400,000 square miles -- the Arctic Ocean is the least-explored of all the oceans, mainly because ice permanently covers most of it.

    Search for Arctic Life Heats Up 2004

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