What does "bathysphere" mean?

A spherical steel deep-diving chamber with perspex windows, in which persons are lowered to the depths by a cable to study the oceans and deep-sea life; the precursor to the bathyscaphe.

What is a synonym for "bathysphere"?

Common synonyms include: air cylinder, aqua lung, aqua-lung, aquascope, bathyscaphe, benthoscope.

How do you pronounce "bathysphere"?

Pronounced //ˈbæθɪˌsfɪə(ɹ)//.

Bathysphere

//ˈbæθɪˌsfɪə(ɹ)// noun

noun ·Uncommon ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun

1
A spherical steel deep-diving chamber with perspex windows, in which persons are lowered to the depths by a cable to study the oceans and deep-sea life; the precursor to the bathyscaphe.
2
spherical deep diving apparatus (lowered by a cable) for underwater exploration wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms

air cylinder aqua lung aqua-lung aquascope bathyscaphe benthoscope

Example

More examples

"The scientists used a bathysphere to explore the depths of the ocean."

Etymology

From bathy- + -sphere. A genericization from the particular bathysphere in the 1930s named Bathysphere. The name bathysphere was coined decades after the introduction of the device in the 1890s.

Related phrases

diving bell

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.