Definitions

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

  • A broad strait between southeast Norway and northwest Denmark linking the North Sea and the Kattegat.

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

  • proper noun The marine passage between Norway and Denmark, formerly also included the passage between Sweden and Denmark, comprising of the Kattegat.

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

  • noun a broad strait of the North Sea between Jutland and Norway

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Of Dutch origin from the 17th century. Skagerrak was the official name on maps (from the 18th century), Kattegatt the vulgar name between sailors. In time, Kattegatt came to be the more common name and Skagerrak only meant the outer part of the area, between Skagen and Norway. In the 19th century the names were still used synonymously. "Skagerrak" contains a prefix from the name Skagen, and a word meaning "straight stretch"(rak, from Dutch and Low German),( in modern Dutch "rak" is a straight stretch in an otherwise sinious waterway; in modern sailing the distance to be sailed between two points)" i.e., the straight passage past Skagen. Source: Svenskt ortsnamnslexikon (Swedish lexicon of placenames).

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Examples

  • It turned out those two bodies of water weren't really the North Sea and the Baltic, as the German travel magazine had promised — they were the "Skagerrak" and "Kattegat," two subordinate straits.

    Pilgrimage to the Tip of Denmark J. S. Marcus 2011

  • Across all EU fleets, stocks of cod worth £2.7bn were discarded in the North Sea, the Channel and Skagerrak, the strait adjoining Norway, Sweden and the north of Denmark between 1963 and 2008, the New Economics Foundation NEF study, Money Overboard, calculated.

    EU fishing fleets discarded £2.7bn of cod, claims report 2011

  • Denmark, geographically, sits astride 2 similarly narrow straits – Skagerrak and Kattegat that are important international waterways connecting the Baltic with the North Sea (and the Atlantic).

    Matthew Yglesias » Danish Middle East Policy Blogging 2007

  • Just a guess here, but Denmark, geographically, sits astride 2 similarly narrow straits – Skagerrak and Kattegat that are important international waterways connecting the Baltic with the North Sea (and the Atlantic).

    Matthew Yglesias » Danish Middle East Policy Blogging 2007

  • Chrysochromulina blooms in the Skagerrak after 1988.

    Past variability in Arctic marine systems 2009

  • It borders on Norway in the west, on Finland in the northeast, on the Gulf of Bothnia in the east, on the Baltic Sea in the south, and on the Øresund (The Sound), the Kattegat, and the Skagerrak in the southwest.

    Sweden The World Factbook 2008

  • Geography—note: controls Danish Straits (Skagerrak and Kattegat) linking Baltic and North Seas; about one-quarter of the population lives in greater Copenhagen

    Denmark 2008

  • Extending from the Skagerrak, which it borders in the south, c. 1,100 mi (1,770 km) northeast to North Cape and Vardø on the Barents Sea in the extreme northeast, the country forms a narrow mountainous strip along the North Sea in the southwest and in the west the Atlantic Ocean, whose local waters are also called the Norwegian Sea.

    Norway The World Factbook 2008

  • Denmarkcontrols Danish Straits (Skagerrak and Kattegat) linking Baltic and North Seas; about one-quarter of the population lives in greater Copenhagen

    Geography-note 2008

  • It borders on Germany in the south, the North Sea in the west, the Skagerrak in the north, and the Kattegat and the Øresund in the east.

    Denmark The World Factbook 2008

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