pacific

pacific — adjective

1. connected with the Pacific Ocean or the lands and waters around it.

1.adjectiveB2
Definition

connected with the Pacific Ocean or the lands and waters around it.

Example

Pacific winds brought heavy rain to the west coast.

capitalized adjective before geography noun

The museum displayed Pacific shells from Fiji and Samoa.

Pacific + natural feature

Common collocations
  • Pacific coast
  • Pacific island
  • Pacific port
  • Pacific trade route
Synonyms
  • trans-Pacific

    used when travel, trade, or communication goes across the ocean, not just around it

  • Pacific Rim

    used mainly for countries and economies around the ocean rather than for all Pacific things

Antonyms
  • Atlantic

    relating to the Atlantic Ocean instead

Grammar Patterns

Pacific + coast/island/port

Pacific + trade/wind/current

Usage Note

Usually appears before nouns naming places, weather, trade, animals, or travel near this ocean. Keep the capital letter because it comes from the proper name 'the Pacific'.

Common Mistakes

The storm hit pacific islands.
The storm hit Pacific islands.
use a capital letter for the ocean-related sense.
They studied the pacific culture of Peru.
They studied Pacific culture in Peru.
capitalize the adjective and place it directly before the noun it describes.

2. wanting calm relations, or likely to reduce anger and fighting.

2.adjectiveC1
Definition

wanting calm relations, or likely to reduce anger and fighting.

Example

After two hours of talks, both sides sounded more pacific.

become more pacific after conflict

Mina's pacific reply stopped the argument from growing in class.

pacific + reply

Common collocations
  • pacific reply
  • pacific offer
  • pacific policy
  • more pacific tone
Synonyms
  • peaceful

    the usual everyday word, used more widely for people, places, and situations

  • calm

    focuses more on quiet feeling or lack of excitement than on avoiding conflict

  • conciliatory

    more formal, stressing an active attempt to bring the two sides closer

  • peaceable

    quite close in meaning, but also uncommon and slightly old-fashioned

Antonyms
  • aggressive

    ready to attack, argue, or force others

  • warlike

    showing a strong wish to fight or use force

Grammar Patterns

pacific + reply/offer/policy

become/grow + pacific

Usage Note

Often describes people, groups, replies, or actions that avoid conflict. More formal and less common than 'peaceful', and less often used for places or scenery.

Common Mistakes

The lake looked pacific at sunset.
The lake looked peaceful at sunset.
'pacific' usually describes attitudes, behaviour, or conflict, not scenery.
The speech was Pacific and calm.
The speech was pacific and calm.
this sense is not capitalized unless it begins a sentence.

pacific — noun

Word family

  • pacifist
    nounB2
  • pacifism
    nounC1
  • pacify
    verbC1

Synonym discussion

Sense: adjective/1

For this sense, pacific is a formal word for someone or something that avoids conflict or helps ease it. Peaceful is the normal everyday choice and works for places, people, moods, and situations. Calm is broader: it can describe quiet feelings, weather, or voices, even when conflict is not involved. Conciliatory is more active and diplomatic, used when a reply, gesture, or proposal is meant to bring two sides closer. Peaceable is very near in meaning but feels rarer and slightly old-fashioned. Compare: a peaceful village, a calm teacher, a conciliatory statement after a strike, and a pacific response that stops an argument before it grows.

peaceful ↗calm ↗conciliatorypeaceable

Etymology

LatinSpanishEnglish

Pacific comes from Latin pacificus, meaning 'peace-making', built from words meaning 'peace' and 'make'. English first used it for the idea of being peace-loving or likely to bring peace. The ocean name came later from Spanish Mar Pacífico, a name given because the water seemed calm at the time of naming.