sargasso

noun

sar·​gas·​so sär-ˈga-(ˌ)sō How to pronounce sargasso (audio)
plural sargassos
1
2
: a mass of floating vegetation and especially sargassums

Examples of sargasso in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web
Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
Some features are impossible to miss, like the multi-tiered adults-only and separate family pools, plus two miles of white-sand beach (where the sargasso seaweed is caught with nets and meticulously cleaned from the beach each morning). Devorah Lev-Tov, Travel + Leisure, 5 June 2023 From May to October, Tulum, like the rest of the Caribbean, suffers from hard-to-manage quantities of sargasso seaweed. Jamie Ditaranto, Travel + Leisure, 15 Apr. 2023 Like the rest of the Caribbean, Tulum sometimes suffers from the scourge of sargasso seaweed. Jamie Ditaranto, Travel + Leisure, 5 Aug. 2021

Word History

Etymology

borrowed from Portuguese sargaço, apparently the same word as sargaço, sargaça "the flowering plant Halimium lasianthum, related to the rockrose," of uncertain origin

Note: Traced by Coromines (Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico) along with Spanish jaguarzo to a putative Mozarabic *xaugaçro, going back to Latin salicastrum, a plant of uncertain identity named by Pliny.

First Known Use

1598, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Time Traveler
The first known use of sargasso was in 1598

Dictionary Entries Near sargasso

Cite this Entry

“Sargasso.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/sargasso. Accessed 22 Nov. 2024.

Kids Definition

sargasso

noun
sar·​gas·​so sär-ˈgas-ō How to pronounce sargasso (audio)
plural sargassos
1
2
: a mass of floating plants and especially sargassums
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