submarine vs submersible

submarine

noun
  • Any submarine plant or animal. 

  • A kind of sandwich made in a long loaf of bread. 

  • A boat that can go underwater. 

  • A pitch delivered with an underhand motion. 

  • A stowaway on a seagoing vessel. 

adj
  • Existing, relating to, or made for use beneath the sea. 

  • Hidden or undisclosed. 

  • Of a pitch, thrown with the hand lower than the elbow. 

verb
  • To sink or submerge oneself. 

  • To torpedo; to destroy with a sudden sneak attack. 

  • To operate or serve on a submarine. 

  • To slide forwards underneath one's seat belt (during a crash or sudden stop). 

submersible

noun
  • A small nonmilitary, non-nuclear submarine for exploration. 

  • A term used primarily by some navies for nuclear submarines, termed "true submersibles", because they cannot retroactively declare that their non-nuclear submarines should be called by a different name. 

  • A very small "baby" submarine designed for specific localized missions, usually while tethered to a submarine or ship for life support and communications. Slang synonyms: midget-submarine, anchor. 

  • A retroactive term used for non-nuclear submarines; nuclear submarines are termed "true submarines". 

adj
  • Able to be submerged. 

How often have the words submarine and submersible occurred in a corpus of books? (source: Google Ngram Viewer )