Definitions

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

  • An arm of the Atlantic Ocean between Great Britain and northwest Europe. It is connected with the English Channel by the Strait of Dover. Major reserves of oil and natural gas were discovered beneath its waters in the late 1960s.

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

  • proper noun An inlet of the Atlantic Ocean between Britain (in the west), Scandinavia (in the east) and Germany, Netherlands, Belgium and France (in the south).

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

  • noun an arm of the North Atlantic between the British Isles and Scandinavia; oil was discovered under the North Sea in 1970

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Middle English North-see, from Old English norþsǣ ("northern sea, Bristol Channel, Baltic, North Sea"), equivalent to north +‎ sea. Cognate with West Frisian Noardsee ("North Sea"), Dutch Noordzee ("North Sea"), German Nordsee ("North Sea"), Swedish Nordsjön ("North Sea"), Icelandic Norðursjór ("North Sea").

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Examples

  • It refers to the North Sea oil industry, which has underpinned the UK's economy for more than three decades and is based in Aberdeen, deep in the SNP's heartland.

    SNP hopes a new wave can carry Scotland to independence 2011

  • TD: Well, it's my first new studio music in nearly twenty years, and I've written most of the music in England in the wheelhouse of my solar powered lifeboat looking out over the North Sea, which is a very inspiring place to be.

    Mike Ragogna: TED, Solar Power, Windpower, and All Things Amerikana : A Conversation with Thomas Dolby Mike Ragogna 2010

  • TD: Well, it's my first new studio music in nearly twenty years, and I've written most of the music in England in the wheelhouse of my solar powered lifeboat looking out over the North Sea, which is a very inspiring place to be.

    Mike Ragogna: TED, Solar Power, Windpower, and All Things Amerikana : A Conversation with Thomas Dolby Mike Ragogna 2010

  • The North Sea is another fishing region facing problems with quotas.

    A Fish Bruce Palling 2010

  • The Sleipner Project in the North Sea is the first commercial-scale operation for sequestering CO2 in a deep saline reservoir.

    Carbon capture and storage 2009

  • "The deal sees us continuing our investment in the North Sea, which is good news for our customers and shareholders," Mr. Laidlaw said.

    Centrica Wins Battle to Buy Oil Producer 2009

  • The North Sea was the ocean in your mind blue, blue, and blue proud and great sea green / kelp brown / foam white

    Susanne Jorn greenintegerblog 2008

  • The North Sea is a highly productive LME supporting average landings of 2.5 million metric tons of fish and shellfish every year.

    North Sea large marine ecosystem 2008

  • The green flat almost lawn-like areas running right up to the edge of the sea cliffs reminds me of a place in the north of England I once saw, except the North Sea was a soupy gray rather than your nice bright blue.

    'round here Annie 2005

  • The Russians all think East Siberia has even more oil than West Siberia; everyone in the North Sea, which is running out, is convinced there is even more to be found west of Shetland … no doubt when the time comes, they will be given the budget to go find it, and to work out how to get it to market.

    von Storch at Boulder « Climate Audit 2005

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