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Glite Dictionary
East Sea

East Sea

4.4
A sea between Japan and the eastern coasts of Korea and Russia, often called the Sea of Japan
  • proper noun
translation icon : Mar del Este
  • The East Sea is an important shipping route for trade between Japan and Korea.

Examples

  • Many fishing boats operate in the East Sea where the waters are rich in marine life.

  • During the summer, tourists flock to the beaches along the East Sea for sunbathing and water sports.

  • Most commercial ships on the East Sea relied on his protection, and his vessels became known as the safest carriers for international travel.

    Academic text (2016)

Synonyms

Sea of Japan
vsEast Sea
3 2.4

A sea in the northwest Pacific between Japan, North and South Korea, and Russia

is the same sea but used as an alternate name

Surface Forms

East Sea main

Morphology

east + sea

The compound is directly and transparently built from 'east' (the cardinal direction) + 'sea' (a large body of saltwater), so a B1 learner who knows both words will infer it denotes a sea located to the east. While it is a specific toponym (the Sea of Japan/East Sea) requiring world knowledge to identify the exact body of water, the basic meaning is compositionally predictable and cross-linguistically common.

Etymology

East Sea comes from a simple picture: for people in Korea the large sea lies to their east, so they called it the east sea. That is why today East Sea refers to the sea between Korea, Japan and Russia, and many Koreans prefer this name instead of 'Sea of Japan'.