Northwest Passage
4
7.5
- noun
- /ˈnɔrθˌwɛst ˈpæsɪdʒ/
:
Paso del Noroeste
- Ships too large to make it through the Panama Canal currently must pass around South America's Cape Horn; a new route through the Northwest Passage would reduce the length of their Europe-Asia voyages by 19,000 kilometers!
- the fabled Northwest Passage
- seeking the Northwest Passage
Like the the ones that the Northwest Passage crew were lost on were called the Erebus and the Terror.
- Like the the ones that the Northwest Passage crew were lost on were called the Erebus and the Terror.
Examples
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Explorers sought the Northwest Passage for centuries as a shortcut between Europe and Asia.
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But the time has come for Washington to get over its isolationist instincts and ratify UNCLOS, cooperate with Canada on managing the Northwest Passage, and propose an imaginative new multilateral Arctic treaty.
Academic text (2008) -
Now it seems as if that fabled Northwest Passage is about to open.
Academic text (2006) -
Amundsen started his journey through the Northwest Passage in 1903; it took him nearly three years to complete his expedition.
Blog text (18) -
In 1845, John Franklin set out from England to find the fabled Northwest Passage through the Arctic and was never seen again.
Blog text (3) -
Hall's second expedition never went to Baffin Island; instead, he pursued the search for the Northwest Passage and the lost Franklin expedition.
Academic text (1990) -
PHOTO (COLOR): The Northwest Passage is a route from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean through the Arctic archipelago of Canada.
Academic text (2006) -
A Royal Canadian Mounted Police vessel, the St. Roch II, transited the Northwest Passage in August without touching ice.
Academic text (2000) -
For instance, in a well-known 1985 incident, a Coast Guard icebreaker navigated through the Northwest Passage, which the United States claims is an international strait, without seeking Canadian permission.
Academic text (2017) -
The HMS Investigator left England in 1850 to find the HMS Erebus and Terror, ships that had been seeking the fabled Northwest Passage.
Academic text (2010)
Synonyms
3
4.4
A route through the sea that ships use to travel between places
Surface Forms
Morphology
The phrase is directly compositional: 'northwest' (a direction/region) combined with 'passage' (a sea crossing or route) yields the idea of a route through the northwest. A B1 learner who knows both words can readily infer it refers to a sea route in the northern region (i.e. the sea passage connecting Atlantic and Pacific), even if they lack detailed historical knowledge.
Etymology
Northwest Passage comes from explorers who for centuries looked for a sea 'shortcut' to Asia along the north coast of America. They imagined a clear passage in the northwest that would link the Atlantic and Pacific oceans, so today the name means a sea route connecting the two oceans.