Etimology
From Middle English see, from Old English sǣ (“sea”), from Proto-West Germanic *saiwi, from Proto-Germanic *saiwiz (compare West Frisian see, Dutch zee, German See, Danish sø, Norwegian Bokmål sjø, Swedish sjö), probably either from Proto-Indo-European *sh₂ey-wo- (“to be fierce, afflict”) (compare Latin saevus (“wild, fierce”), Tocharian B saiwe (“itch”), Latvian sievs, sīvs (“sharp, biting”); more at sore) or derived from *sīhwaną (“to percolate, filter”), in which case *saiwiz is from earlier *saigwiz, Pre-Germanic *soykʷ-ís.
noun
sea (plural seas)
A large body of salt water.
A lake, especially if large or if salty or brackish.
The swell of the sea; a single wave; billow.
(attributive, in combination) Living or used in or on the sea; of, near, or like the sea.
(figurative) Anything resembling the vastness or turbulence of the sea.
(physics) A constant flux of gluons splitting into quarks, which annihilate to produce further gluons.
(planetology) A large, dark plain of rock; a mare.
(planetology) A very large lake of liquid hydrocarbon.
Examples
Synonym: ogin
God moves in a myſterious way, / His wonders to perform; / He plants his footſteps in the ſea, / And rides upon the ſtorm.
These ſhal ye eat, of all that are in the waters: whatsoeuer hath finnes and ſcales in the waters, in the ſeas, and in the riuers, them ſhall ye eate.
At length the universal Wreck appear'd,/ To Cæsar's self, ev'n worthy to be fear'd./ Why all these Pains, this Toil of Fate / This Labour of the Seas, and Earth, and Skies?/ All Nature, and the Gods at once alarm'd,/ Against my little Boat and me are arm'd.
There is something in being near the sea, like the confines of eternity. It is a new element, a pure abstraction. The mind loves to hover on that which is endless, and forever the same. People wonder at a steam-boat, the invention of man, managed by man, that makes its liquid path like an iron railway through the sea—I wonder at the sea itself, that vast Leviathan, rolled round the earth, smiling in its sleep, waked into fury, fathomless, boundless, a huge world of water-drops.—Whence is it, whither goes it, is it of eternity, or of nothing?
As we stood there watching, the long yellow light on the eastern horizon suddenly changed in color—first to a roseate flush, then to a warm crimson; the scenes round us, sky, sea, and land, brightened as if by magic.
The Mediterranean Sea, the Caribbean Sea, the Sea of Crete, etc.
The Caspian Sea, the Sea of Galilee, the Salton Sea, etc.
One ſea broke away the ſpare yards and ſpars out of the ſtarboard main chains. Another heavy ſea broke into the ſhip and ſtove all the boats. Several caſks of beer, that had been laſhed upon deck, were broke looſe and waſhed overboard, and it was not without great difficulty and riſk that we were able to ſecure the boats from being waſhed away entirely.
"If they buy three cords of birch logs," said the witch, "but they must be exact measure and no bargaining about the price, and if they throw overboard the one cord of logs, piece by piece, when the first sea comes, and the other cord, piece by piece, when the second sea comes, and the third cord, piece by piece, when the third sea comes, then it's all over with us."
There was a small sea rising with the wind coming up from the east and at noon the old man's left hand was uncramped.
High pressure will maintain light winds and flat seas through Tue night. ... Potential for briefly choppy 3 ft seas near South Coast...
Seaman, sea gauge, sea monster, sea horse, sea level, seaworthy, seaport, seaboard, etc.
To be, or not to be, that is the question,/ Whether tis nobler in the minde to suffer/ The slings and arrowes of outragious fortune,/ Or to take Armes against a sea of troubles,/ And by opposing, end them, to die to sleepe/ No more, and by a sleepe, to say we end/ The hart-ake, and the thousand naturall shocks/ That flesh is heire to.
Secondly, in terms of geopolitics Central Asia was a huge sea of barbarians set in the midst of interlocking continents. Thanks to its border on the Siberian forest in the north, it was open to barbarian incomers who would upset existing polities and set migrations going.
In the last two decades, North Korea has on various occasions conducted highly provocative missile and nuclear tests and promised to turn Seoul into a sea of fire.
The Apollo 11 mission landed in the Sea of Tranquility.