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Glite Dictionary
🌊 A Pacific sea ⚔️ A WWII battle
Bismarck Sea

Bismarck Sea

7.7
A World War II battle near New Guinea where Allied planes sank a Japanese convoy
  • proper noun
translation icon : batalla del mar de Bismarck
  • The Battle of the Bismarck Sea marked a turning point in the Pacific campaign during World War II.

Examples

  • The Bismarck Sea witnessed a significant naval battle in March 1943.

  • Many historians consider the Allied victory at the Bismarck Sea crucial to halting Japanese advances.

  • An Australian commemoration ceremony was held for those lost in the Bismarck Sea engagement.

  • Did you know the Bismarck Sea was crucial during World War II?

  • Many historians consider the Allied victory at the Bismarck Sea crucial to halting Japanese advances.

  • The Battle of the Bismarck Sea marked a turning point in the Pacific campaign during World War II.

  • An Australian commemoration ceremony was held for those lost in the Bismarck Sea engagement.

Synonyms

battle of the Bismarck Sea
vsBismarck Sea
8.7

A sea fight in March 1943 in which Allied bombers destroy a group of Japanese ships in the Bismarck Sea

is identical in meaning but uses the place name form instead of the engagement phrase

Surface Forms

Bismarck Sea main

Morphology

Bismarck + sea

The item combines the proper name 'Bismarck' (not semantically transparent to learners) with 'sea' (a body of water), so a learner might infer a geographic sea named Bismarck but would not be able to derive that the MWE denotes a specific WWII naval battle. The event meaning (a historical battle) is not predictable from the constituent words, making it idiomatic/opaque for learners.

Etymology

The World War II name Battle of the Bismarck Sea comes simply from the sea where the fighting happened. In March 1943 Allied planes destroyed a group of Japanese ships there, so the phrase now refers to that sea battle.