Demersal

adj, noun

adj, noun ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    Any demersal organism.
Adjective
  1. 1
    That lives near the bottom of a body of water.

    "Unlike the more demersal (bottom-dwelling) cod, pollock will pursue schools of small fishes at any depth, occasionally driving them to the surface of the water where frantic splashing can be seen as the prey attempt to escape."

  2. 2
    Taking place near the bottom of a body of water.

    "demersal fishing"

Synonyms

All synonyms
benthicbenthic

Example

More examples

"Unlike the more demersal (bottom-dwelling) cod, pollock will pursue schools of small fishes at any depth, occasionally driving them to the surface of the water where frantic splashing can be seen as the prey attempt to escape."

Etymology

From Latin demersus, past participle of dēmergō (“to sink”); compare demersed.

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