sea fan

noun

Any gorgonian (in order Alcyonacea) which branches in a fan-like form, especially of species Gorgonia ventalina (common sea fan, purple sea fan) and Gorgonia flabellum (Venus fan, Venus sea fan, West Indian sea fan, purple gorgonian seafan) of Florida and the West Indies.

Ask AI about this wordChatGPTClaudePerplexityGoogle AIGrok

Meanings

nounsea fan (plural sea fans)

plural sea fans · alternative sea-fan

  1. Any gorgonian (in order Alcyonacea) which branches in a fan-like form, especially of species Gorgonia ventalina (common sea fan, purple sea fan) and Gorgonia flabellum (Venus fan, Venus sea fan, West Indian sea fan, purple gorgonian seafan) of Florida and the West Indies.

    Wide sea fans swayed and beckoned in the eddies, and in the grey valleys they caught the light of the moon and waved spectrally, like fragments of the shrouds of men buried at sea.

    1954, Ian Fleming, “Beau Desert”, in Live and Let Die, London: Pan Books, published 1957, page 203

Synonyms & antonyms

Also see
sea shrub

Origin

From sea + fan.

Full word history & related roots →

Translations

Māori pungatea
  • pungateaa type of soft coral
Cite this entry
APA

sea fan. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 5, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/sea%20fan

MLA

“sea fan.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/sea%20fan. Accessed November 5, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “sea fan,” accessed November 5, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/sea%20fan.

Source: sea fan on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.