In fluid dynamics, dispersion of water waves generally refers to frequency dispersion, which means that waves of different wavelengths travel at different phase speeds. Water waves, in this context, a
North Pacific storm waves as seen from the NOAA M/V Noble Star, Winter 1989.
NOAA ship Delaware II in bad weather on Georges Bank. While these ocean waves are random, and not Stokes waves (in the strict sense), they indicate the typical sharp crests and flat troughs as found in nonlinear surface gravity waves.