A vocabulary of landscape — a landscape of words
1467 entries
abyss
The deepest zone of the ocean — below 13,000 feet, where no light reaches, the pressure crushes, and the water is a few degrees above freezing. The abyss is not empty, it’s full of life adapted to conditions that would kill anything from the surface. The word also applies to any chasm of unfathomable depth — a crevasse, a canyon, a void.
Etymology
Greek abyssos — a- (without) + byssos (bottom). Without bottom. The word has carried theological weight since it was used for the primordial deep in Genesis.