what is the difference between ocean and sea?

Answer 1

Size is important, Oceans ARE bigger than seas, ( smallest ocean Arctic 5,427,000 sq miles, largest sea Mediterranean 1,144,800 sq mi). But a sea is more or less enclosed and separated from the larger ocean by land.
The Mediterranean is completely surrounded by land with only the Straits of Gibraltar as an outlet, while the Bering Sea is separated from the Pacific to the south by only a narrow string of widely spaced islands. Seas generally are larger than gulfs, ( also "more or less enclosed and separated from the larger body of water by land.") but the Gulf of Mexico,615,000 sq mi ,is larger than the East China Sea, 482,300. Gulfs and seas are larger than bays (again "more or less enclosed and separated from the larger body of water by land.") "but The Bay of Bengal, 1,300,000 square miles is larger than the Mediterranean . A large inland saline lake without an outlet or connection to a larger body is also called a sea, such as the Caspian Sea, 152,239 square miles.. The Caspian, though saline and no outlet, is sometimes considered to be the world's largest LAKE, Lake Superior,largest fresh water body and with an outlet, 31,820 sq mi , is larger than the saline Dead Sea, 394 square miles. The Sea of Galilee is a small freshwater lake with a natural outlet, but it's called Sea anyway. Sometimes it's just a matter of what people call it, sea?

Answer 2

I think an ocean is a salty body of water that acts as an end point for water. In other words, it doesn't have to flow to another. A sea is the same thing, except it still discharges water to another body of salt water. At least, that's what I see when I look at a map of them.

Answer 3

"The intercommunicating body of salt water occupying the depressions of the earth's surface, or one of its major primary subdivisions, bounded by the continents, or the equator, and other imaginary lines.
A sea is a subdivision of an ocean."
http://www.weatherquests.com/services/knowledge/glossary/?code=o

Answer 4

size is the main diffrence. an ocean is bigger than a sea.

Answer 5

two letters, size?