Meaning & use
the abyssal plain
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Meaning
nouncountable
A vast, very flat area of the deep ocean floor, covered with fine sediment, lying far below sea level.
Grammar: Countable; the article is used for the general feature: the abyssal plain, or an abyssal plain.
Patterns
- on the abyssal plain
- across the abyssal plain
Fine mud slowly settles across the abyssal plain.
Few animals live on the abyssal plain because food is scarce.
Scientists towed a camera over the abyssal plain to map its surface.
Word forms
| plural | abyssal plains |
|---|
Common combinations
- deep abyssal plain
- The deep abyssal plain lies in permanent darkness.
- sediment on the abyssal plain
- Sediment on the abyssal plain builds up very slowly.
- cross the abyssal plain
- The cable has to cross the abyssal plain.
- abyssal plain ecosystem
- An abyssal plain ecosystem depends on food sinking from above.
Synonyms and how they differ
- ocean floor
- Ocean floor means the whole sea bottom, including mountains and trenches, so it is much wider.
- seabed
- Seabed is an everyday word for the bottom of any sea, without implying flatness or depth.
- deep-sea plain
- This is a plainer description but less used in textbooks.
Opposites
Word family
Commonly confused: the abyssal plain or abysmal?
the abyssal plain vs abysmal
Abysmal means extremely bad, as in abysmal weather; abyssal relates to the deep ocean.
Practice
Which place is most closely linked with the abyssal plain?
Choose one answer.
The abyssal plain is the flat, deep ocean floor. Coral reefs are shallow, and river deltas are on land margins.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “the abyssal plain”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.