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Glite Dictionary
sea pig

sea pig

9.9
A deep-sea animal that looks like a fat sea cucumber and crawls on the ocean floor
  • noun
  • /siː pɪg/
  • Specialized
translation icon : cerdo de mar
  • The sea pig is a unique creature that moves gracefully along the ocean floor.

Examples

  • During the dive, we spotted a sea pig slowly crawling across the sandy seabed.

  • I'm a sea pig.

    The House on Sorority Row (1982)

  • Biologists were excited to study the sea pig due to its interesting locomotion and appearance.

Synonyms

sea cucumber
vssea pig
4 4.8

A soft sea animal with a long body, leathery skin, and tentacles around its mouth

is a deep ocean type mainly noted for odd body shape and floor locomotion
holothurian
vssea pig
  • Specialized
9.9

A sea animal with a soft, long body and tentacles near its mouth

is a deep sea form with unusual snoutlike body and unique ocean floor movement

Surface Forms

sea pig singular
sea pigs plural

Morphology

sea + pig

The compound 'sea pig' is directly interpretable as a marine animal with pig-like appearance: combining 'sea' (marine) + 'pig' (pig-like creature) yields a sea-dwelling creature resembling a pig. This noun‑noun compounding is a common, compositional pattern in English (and in many languages), so a B1 learner who knows the constituents can readily infer the basic meaning.

Etymology

Sea pig comes from the animal's plump, round body and short, leg-like feet that make it look a little like a small pig walking on the sea floor. So today sea pig is the common name for a deep 'sea cucumber' that lives and crawls on the ocean floor.