seaweed

From sea +‎ weed.

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈsiːwiːd/

  • Audio (Southern England):

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• (US) IPA^(key): /ˈsiwid/

  • Audio (US):

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• Hyphenation: sea‧weed

seaweed (usually uncountable, plural seaweeds)

1. Any of numerous marine plants and algae, such as a kelp.
   • 1915 June, T[homas] S[tearns] Eliot, “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock”, in Prufrock and Other Observations, London: The Egoist […], published 1917, →OCLC, page 16:

     We have lingered in the chambers of the sea / By sea-girls wreathed with seaweed red and brown / Till human voices wake us, and we drown.

   • 1947 January and February, O. S. Nock, “"The Aberdonian" in Wartime”, in Railway Magazine, page 8:

     The tide was out, and we drew up amid the strong bracing smell of seaweed, with gulls screeching, wheeling around, and gliding on the wind.

   • 2023 September 25, Vincent Doumeizel, “Opinion: Seaweed is nutritious, not slimy. Eating it could save the world.”, in CNN‎^[1]:

     There has been some investigation into the potential of seaweeds as a carbon store, and although more is needed, one study says that seaweed habitats are believed to be the most productive of all coastal vegetated ecosystems, and suggested that the world’s seaweed sequesters as much carbon as all the planet’s seagrass meadows, saltmarshes and mangroves combined.

2. (by extension) Any of various fresh water plants and algae.
   • 1995, Dan McCosh, “Aliens among us”, in Popular Science, page 94:

     With light penetrating to the lake bottom, beds of seaweed flourished where little had grown before.

• sea vegetable