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I'm in the air and I'm in the ocean,
To the ones like Shakespeare goes my devotion.
I get confused by my seeing,
yet completely different my meaning.
Sometimes big and sometimes small,
when I protect, you won't see me at all.

What am I?
Hint in the title.
Hint 2:

Line 1: Also in many other things, but only visible with a very good microscope ;)

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1 Answer 1

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Are you:

The letter O?

I'm one of many brothers

O is one of the vowel family

I'm in the air and I'm in the ocean,

O is the symbol for oxygen found in air(O2) and water (H2O). Credit to @GileBrt for mentioning this first in comment.

To the ones like Shakespeare goes my devotion.

Shakespeare used 'O' as an exclamation, as was the case in old English (eg O Mistress mine where are you roaming? O stay and hear, your true love's coming)

I get confused by my seeing, yet completely different my meaning.

(with credit to @MrDeadSven) could refer to the fact that 0(zero) and the letter O look the same but have completely different meaning.

Sometimes big and sometimes small,

Upper case O, lower case o.

when I protect, you won't see me at all.

When the letter protects another vowel it is not heard.

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  • $\begingroup$ Nope that wasn't on purpose. You are on the right track, just not the one I was thinking off. 1st line has a different meaning and line 3& 4 are different. But it's one of it's brothers. $\endgroup$
    – Peter
    Aug 7, 2018 at 9:06
  • $\begingroup$ @PeterS Okay... second guess? $\endgroup$
    – Astralbee
    Aug 7, 2018 at 9:09
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    $\begingroup$ I was thinking that it's the letter O. Because of H2O (in the ocean) and there is oxygen (O2) in the air. :) $\endgroup$
    – GileBrt
    Aug 7, 2018 at 9:12
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    $\begingroup$ @PeterS is it rot13(b naq 0 gung n mreb ybbxf yvxr na b ohg vg'f pbzcyrgryl qvssrerag), for 3 and 4 this was the first thing that came to my mind? $\endgroup$
    – mrdeadsven
    Aug 7, 2018 at 9:52
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    $\begingroup$ @PeterS Thanks for a fun puzzle. I wrote a riddle involving the same set of brothers.... puzzling.stackexchange.com/questions/64388/… $\endgroup$
    – Astralbee
    Aug 7, 2018 at 9:58

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