Meaning & use
sargasso
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Meaning
noununcountablebiology
A kind of brownish floating seaweed that grows in big drifting mats on the surface of warm seas, especially in the Atlantic.
Grammar: Usually used without 'a' for the weed in general: a mat of sargasso; written sargassum in science.
Patterns
- a mat of sargasso
- sargasso floating on something
Thick mats of sargasso drifted across the surface of the warm water.
Small crabs and fish hide among the sargasso for protection.
The ship slowed as it passed through a long stretch of sargasso.
Common combinations
- Sargasso Sea
- The Sargasso Sea is named after the weed that floats in it.
- floating sargasso
- Floating sargasso shelters young turtles.
- mat of sargasso
- A huge mat of sargasso covered the bay.
- sargasso weed
- Sargasso weed gives shelter to many sea creatures.
Synonyms and how they differ
- gulfweed
- Gulfweed is an older popular name for the same seaweed, while sargasso is the more common general term.
- seaweed
- Seaweed is the broad word for any marine algae, whereas sargasso names one specific floating kind.
- sargassum
- Sargassum is the scientific name of the genus, while sargasso is the everyday term.
Word family
- Sargasso Sea proper noun
- a region of the North Atlantic full of floating seaweed
- sargassum noun
- the scientific name for the seaweed genus
Commonly confused: sargasso or sargasso vs sargassum?
sargasso vs sargasso vs sargassum
Sargassum is the scientific name used by biologists, while sargasso is the older common form, now mostly seen in the name Sargasso Sea.
Practice
Why is the Sargasso Sea so named?
Choose one answer.
The sea takes its name from sargasso weed, which floats on its surface in dense mats. The other reasons are not connected to the name.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “sargasso”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.