This glossary was prepared to provide the oceanographic community in general with definitions of technical terms used in oceanography and allied marine sciences. For the most part, the terms and definitions cited here represent usage in the marine aspects of physics, chemistry, biology, geology, geophysics, geography, mathematics, and meteorology, particularly in the manner that these terms are used in the U. S. Naval Oceanographic Office research, operations, and publications.

Navigation is essentially an applied science and touches many other fields, borrowing copiously from their terminology. If terms relating primarily to such branches of science as astronomy, cartography, electronics, mathematics, meteorology, oceanography, surveying, etc., are found in these pages, it is because the navigator's sphere of interest overlaps these fields. An attempt has been made to define such terms in the language and from the viewpoint of the navigator. Only those meanings more or less directly related to navigation have been included.