free diving

noun

variants or free-diving

ˈfrē-ˌdī-viŋ 

: the sport of diving and swimming beneath the surface of water especially to considerable depth without a portable breathing device and typically with a face mask and one or two flippers

That's the essence of free diving, a sport defined by lung capacity and physical endurance. Taken broadly, "free diving" encompasses everything from floating face down in a swimming pool … to plunging more than 500 feet on a weighted sled … .

—Logan Ward

called also skin diving

Examples of free diving in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

Advertisement Wednesday evening, a group of four men departed from the Port of Long Beach to go free diving. —Karen Garcia, Los Angeles Times, 6 Dec. 2024

These are ideal conditions for scuba, snorkeling, and free diving. —Graham Averill, Outside Online, 11 Sep. 2024

Guests can learn the art of free diving from world-champion freediver Kimi Werner capped off with a four-course private dinner with Chef Richard Polhemus. —Sarah Sekula, Travel + Leisure, 7 July 2024

Price failed to resurface while free diving the Halsey shipwreck, officials said. —Will Greenlee, USA TODAY, 15 May 2024

Price, 39, went missing Sunday morning while free diving at a WWII-era shipwreck in the same area about 130 miles north of Miami but did not resurface. —David Matthews, New York Daily News, 14 May 2024

So there’s a certain frustration — not to mention danger — in free diving for them. —Natalie Krebs, Outdoor Life, 16 May 2024

Iwasaki wrote that many of the parallels between the movie and Ferreras’ life story would be common to any movie about free diving. —Gene Maddaus, Variety, 12 Apr. 2024

From free diving to wingsuiting (skydiving in a web-sleeved jumpsuit), the thrill-seeker leans on the advice of experts to guide him on his journey, as well as his own Buddhist practice to keep him grounded. —Natalia Senanayake, Peoplemag, 11 Apr. 2024

Word History

First Known Use

1948, in the meaning defined above