More specifically, though, a sea is “a division of these waters, of considerable extent, more or less definitely marked off by land boundaries.” In this sense, the distinguishing feature of a sea is often that it’s a portion of the ocean bounded by land in some way-typically smaller landmasses, as opposed to entire continents. In general, when people say the sea, they often mean the same thing as the ocean-the enormous, connected body of salt water that covers most of the planet. So if you count these divisions, you’ll end up with a list of seven oceans (instead of five). The Pacific and the Atlantic are the biggest and are further divided into the North Atlantic and South Atlantic and the North Pacific and South Pacific.
We also call each of these sections an ocean, and each has a specific name: the Pacific Ocean (from the east coasts of Asia and Australia to west coasts of the Americas), the Atlantic Ocean (from the east coasts of the Americas to the west coasts of Europe and Africa), the Indian Ocean (between the east coast of Africa, the Indian subcontinent, and the west coast of Australia), the Arctic Ocean (in the extreme global north), and the Antarctic Ocean (in the extreme global south). We’ve divided this vast expanse-the world ocean, as it’s sometimes called-into sections, roughly based on the position of each section between continents. When people say the ocean, they usually mean “the vast body of salt water that covers almost three fourths of Earth’s surface.” You can think of this as one big, unbounded body of water in which the continents are islands. But technically speaking, an ocean is one of the big five (or seven) divisions of this expanse (like the Atlantic and the Pacific), while a sea is a smaller portion of this (like the Mediterranean and the Caribbean), typically one that is bounded in some way by smaller landmasses. The most general senses of the words ocean and sea are often used interchangeably to refer to the big body of salt water that covers most of Earth. We’ll discover gulfs and bays that are seas in disguise, and we’ll even see some lakes that are called seas but aren’t. Join us as we wade into the differences and dive into the deeper distinctions between ocean and sea. But cartographers and geographers (or, more precisely, hydrographers) have good reason to use the terms differently, especially when referring to specific, named bodies of water. In general use, it’s extremely common for the two words to be used interchangeably. Ocean, sea, it’s all the same salt water, right?
Most of us landlubbers live out our dry lives on solid ground, so it can be easy to forget that Earth is primarily an ocean planet that’s 71% covered in water-most of which connects in a giant blue mass around our little green islands.
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