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Glite Dictionary
sea fan

sea fan

6.5
A flat, tree-shaped coral that grows in warm shallow seas
  • noun
  • /siː fæn/
translation icon : fan coral
  • Divers marveled at the beauty of the sea fan swaying gently with the current.
  • sea fan coral
  • purple sea fans
  • red sea fan

Examples

  • Colorful fish weave through the branches of the sea fan on the reef.

  • The scientist collected a sample of sea fan to study its structure.

  • The sea fan swayed gently in the water.

  • Many divers enjoy observing sea fans in the coral reefs.

  • In the clear waters of the reef, colorful fish swim among the large, fan-shaped sea fans that sway in the current.

  • Divers marveled at the vibrant sea fans that adorned the coral garden, providing shelter for numerous marine species.

  • The snorkeling guide pointed out the delicate structure of the sea fans, which resembled a beautiful underwater tree.

Surface Forms

sea fan singular
sea fans plural

Morphology

sea + fanned

The meaning is directly compositional: 'sea' (marine) + 'fan'/'fanned' (fan-shaped) yields an object in the sea that has a fan-like shape, which matches the coral definition. This follows ordinary English compounding patterns (e.g., sea horse, sea cucumber) and is cross-linguistically transparent, so a B1 learner who knows the constituent words would readily infer the meaning.

Etymology

Sea fan comes from how this coral looks: its thin branches spread out like a hand fan in the sea, so people call it a 'fan-shaped coral'.