Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea Part 1-2: The title refers to the distance traveled while under the sea and not to a depth, as 20,000 leagues is ... the diameter of Earth. (English Edition) [Kindle-editie] beoordelingen het boek quotes

The title refers to the distance traveled while under the sea and not to a depth, as 20,000 leagues is over six times the diameter of Earth. The greatest depth mentioned in the book is four leagues. (The book uses metric leagues, which are four kilometres each.) A literal translation of the French title would end in the plural "seas", thus implying the "seven seas" through which the characters of the novel travel; however, the early English translations of the title used "sea", meaning the ocean in general.