sargasso

noun

sar·​gas·​so sär-ˈga-(ˌ)sō 

plural sargassos

1

: gulfweed, sargassum

2

: a mass of floating vegetation and especially sargassums

Examples of sargasso in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

Some features are impossible to miss, like the multi-tiered adults-only and separate family pools, plus two miles of white-sand beach (where the sargasso seaweed is caught with nets and meticulously cleaned from the beach each morning). —Devorah Lev-Tov, Travel + Leisure, 5 June 2023

From May to October, Tulum, like the rest of the Caribbean, suffers from hard-to-manage quantities of sargasso seaweed. —Jamie Ditaranto, Travel + Leisure, 15 Apr. 2023

Like the rest of the Caribbean, Tulum sometimes suffers from the scourge of sargasso seaweed. —Jamie Ditaranto, Travel + Leisure, 5 Aug. 2021

Word History

Etymology

borrowed from Portuguese sargaço, apparently the same word as sargaço, sargaça "the flowering plant Halimium lasianthum, related to the rockrose," of uncertain origin

Note: Traced by Coromines (Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico) along with Spanish jaguarzo to a putative Mozarabic *xaugaçro, going back to Latin salicastrum, a plant of uncertain identity named by Pliny.

First Known Use

1598, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Kids Definition

sargasso

noun

sar·​gas·​so sär-ˈgas-ō 

plural sargassos

1

: sargassum

2

: a mass of floating plants and especially sargassums