Atlantic
/atˈlantɪk
/adjective
1Of or adjoining the Atlantic Ocean: the Atlantic coast of Europe...
- The picture here is of the sunset from the Atlantic coast of Tobago, just outside my hotel room.
- Sites for experimental wave turbines have already been identified on the island's Atlantic coast.
- The long sandy beaches of Spain's north coast are lashed by Atlantic surf and hemmed by rolling green hills.
2 Geology Relating to or denoting the third climatic stage of the postglacial period in northern Europe, between the Boreal and Sub-Boreal stages (about 7,500 to 5,000 years ago), marked by a moist oceanic climate.This book challenges our views on the nature of the former natural landscape of Britain during the Atlantic period....
- The end of the Atlantic period was marked by the decline of the elm.
- They occurred well above the late Pleistocene floodplain gravel and underlay a deposit containing animal remains that can be assigned only to the climatic optimum of the Atlantic phase, after 5000 B.C.
noun (the Atlantic)
1 short for Atlantic Ocean.
2 Geology The Atlantic climatic stage.
Origin
Late Middle English: via Latin from Greek Atlantikos, from Atlas, Atlant- (see atlas). The term originally referred to the Atlas Mountains in North Africa, hence to the sea near the west African coast, later extended to the whole ocean.