seaway

noun sea·way \ ˈsē-ˌwā \

Updated on: 11 Sep 2017

Definition of seaway

1 :the sea as a route for travel; also :an ocean traffic lane

2 :a moderate or rough sea

3 :a deep inland waterway that admits ocean shipping

See seaway defined for kids

Recent Examples of seaway from the Web

After death, its carcass ended up back-first on the muddy floor of an ancient seaway, where its front half was preserved in 3-D with extraordinary detail.

— robert clark, National Geographic, "It's Official: Stunning Fossil Is a New Dinosaur Species," 3 Aug. 2017
The bank is seeking to divest of its subsidiaries in the Balkans and stakes in Hellenic Seaways and two Greek fish farms, Selonda and Nireus.

— christos ziotis, Bloomberg.com, "Piraeus Bank Races to Reach ECB Target for Reducing Bad Loans," 17 July 2017
Scientists already have an idea of what life was like in the seaway, though.

— erin blakemore, Smithsonian, "Scientists Are Putting Tens of Thousands of Sea Fossils Online," 22 June 2017
A seaway is said to have split the continent into Western and Eastern halves and an unknown location of a land connection allowed the Triceratops to head east.

— charles p. pierce, Esquire, "Those Little Flags Matter," 26 May 2017
Since deep draft navigation opened on the St. Lawrence in 1959, more than two and a half billion tons of cargo, worth around $375 billion, have traversed the seaway.

— porter fox, New York Times, "From Montreal to Minnesota, by Inland Sea," 19 Aug. 2016
Everybody knows there was a shallow seaway cutting across the continent during the Late Cretaceous.

— brian romans, WIRED, "The Accretionary Wedge #9: Western Interior Seaway," 21 May 2008

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'seaway.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.