(hǎi yáng) - ocean, the seas in Mandarin
hǎiyángTraditional: 海洋
Translation
ocean, the seas
Word origin
A compound of 海 (hǎi, sea) and 洋 (yáng, ocean), two near synonyms paired into one broader word for the whole marine world.
- Origin
- compound
- Root
- 海 (hǎi, sea) + 洋 (yáng, ocean)
Stroke order
海
洋
Examples
洋。
There are many animals in the ocean that we do not know.
洋。
He has loved studying the ocean since he was small.
洋。
Protecting the oceans is everyone's responsibility.
洋。
This book is about marine life.
，洋深蓝。
Seen from the plane, the ocean is deep blue.
海洋 (hǎi yáng) is the ocean taken as a whole: the marine world, the seas of the planet. It is the word you meet in geography lessons, nature documentaries and anything about the environment, and it is the first half of compounds like 海洋生物 (marine life) and 海洋公园 (marine park).
The trap for an English speaker is that 海洋 and 海 are not interchangeable. 海 is the concrete sea you can walk into, so a trip to the seaside is 去海边, never 去海洋. 海洋 is the abstract, scientific, planetary sense. If you can swap in "the marine environment" and the English still works, 海洋 is right.
It is a two-synonym compound, a very common Mandarin pattern: pair a narrow word with a wider one and you get a formal, general term. Compare 道路 (road), 语言 (language) and 疾病 (disease), all built the same way.
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海洋: worksheet, infographic and listicle
Free printable study downloads for the Mandarin word "海洋" (ocean, the seas): a worksheet with the answer key built in, an infographic, and a sentence listicle. Open any one to view, print or save.
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Start your free weekThis word is part of lesson 45.