Marine

How to spell marine

6 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce marine

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does marine mean?

1. adjectiveRelating to the sea, or to creatures, plants, and activities found in it.
2. nounA soldier trained to serve on both land and ship, especially as part of a naval infantry force.

Marine in a sentence

• adjective

  The aquarium specialises in marine life from cold northern waters.

• noun

  His grandfather served as a marine during the war in the Pacific.

• adjective

  New marine regulations limit how close boats may approach the reef.

• noun

  Every marine in the unit completed the gruelling endurance course.

Where does marine come from?

Language of origin: Latin

Marine traces back to the Latin word marinus, meaning 'of the sea', which was itself built on mare, the ordinary Latin word for 'the sea'. English picked it up through Old French marin during the late Middle Ages, when it described anything connected with the sea or with ships. Over time the adjective also took on a military life: by the seventeenth century 'a marine' meant a soldier who served aboard ships, eventually giving the modern naval troops their name. The same mare root still surfaces in relatives like 'maritime', 'submarine', and the woman's name 'Marina'. The spelling stays close to the Latin original, so remembering mare ('sea') keeps the single 'r' and the final '-ine' in place.

How the word is built

• mar (from Latin mare: sea)
• -ine (adjective suffix meaning 'relating to')