Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. The part of the wide lower course of a river where its current is met by the tides.
- n. An arm of the sea that extends inland to meet the mouth of a river.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. An arm or inlet of the sea, particularly one that is covered by water only at high tide.
- n. That part of the mouth or lower course of a river flowing into the sea which is subject to tides; specifically, an enlargement of a riverchannel toward its mouth in which the movement of the tides is very prominent. The principal estuaries, as thus restricted, are those of the St. Lawrence in North America, the Plata in South America, the Thames in England, the Elbe in Germany, and the Gironde in France.
- n. A place where water boils up.
- Belonging to or formed in an estuary: as, estuary strata.
Wiktionary
- n. Coastal water body where ocean tides and river water merge.
- n. An ocean inlet also fed by fresh river water.
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. obsolete A place where water boils up; a spring that wells forth.
- n. A passage, as the mouth of a river or lake, where the tide meets the current; an arm of the sea; a frith.
- adj. Belonging to, or formed in, an estuary.
WordNet 3.0
- n. the wide part of a river where it nears the sea; fresh and salt water mix
Etymologies
- From Latin aestuarium ("creek”, “estuary of a river"). (Wiktionary)
- Latin aestuārium, from aestus, tide, surge, heat. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“He'll take a helicopter tour of the thin orange line of protective booms that divides thousands of acres of estuary from the toxic tides.”
The Washington Post: Joseph Cao, the unlikely congressman from New Orleans
“An estuary is a partly enclosed coastal body of water with one or more rivers or streams flowing into it.”
The Huffington Post: Steve Poses: On the Road: Farm Stands of the Hudson River Valley, NY
“You can fish from shore anywhere in estuary or the beach with fresh shrimp.”
hey guys im back, i just graduated boot camp,im headed to pensacola fl.
“The Amazon estuary is a dynamic lowland consisting of Holocene (less than 10,000 years old) sediments surrounded by slightly older Tertiary deposits.”
“The resulting estuary is one of the planet's greatest fish incubators, providing a stream of prey that flows into the Gulf where it attracts legions of hungry predators.”
“Playa del Rey and the Huichol sacred island lie across an estuary from the customs house.”
“Officials have recorded 125 fish species in the Thames estuary, which is home to shellfisheries and provides nursing grounds for sole and bass.”
The Guardian: Freshwater wildlife thrives in cleanest rivers since Industrial Revolution
“The estuary is a place where incoming fresh water and ocean water mix, and the salinity can vary depending on the phase in the tidal cycle and the amount of rainfall.”
“Recent geologic factors that have shaped the estuary are the competing forces of rising sea level, which promotes inland migration of the estuary, and tectonic uplift, which reverses that trend.”
Tijuana River National Estuarine Research Reserve, California
“The major rivers emptying into the estuary are the Coos and the Millicoma, which supply 66% of the fresh water entering the system.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘estuary’.
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Words from Blood Meridian
visage, affray, scullery, miasma, mirth, purlieu, tacit, benighted, wickiup, corral, amble, accoutre and 210 more...
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ENVI - water protection
surface system, supply, substrate, subsoil, superficial deposit, sub-basin, stream gaging sta..., spillway, stratification, surface fresh water, stop valve, sprinkler and 398 more...
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Written on Water
An eclectic list of words pertaining to and describing water.
"...I am the faithful husband of the rain,
I love the water of wells and springs
and the taste of roofs in the...water, rain, cistern, thirst, dead-water, eddy-water, surge, flood, ebb, fluid, flow, liquor amnii and 202 more...
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Nature and Environment
north, east, west, mountain, sea, beach, river, northeast, northwest, southeast, southwest, island and 205 more...
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big book gre
abase, abbess, abbey, abbot, abdicate, abdomen, abdominal, abduction, abed, aberration, abet, abeyance and 6691 more...
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wakcy's Words
apocalypse, interlude, drome, absolution, atrocity, ruse, pristine, mason, reparable, deteriorate, pyramid, hipster and 283 more...
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Words For Novel (Part 3)
fibers, gypsy, polymer, schism, syphilitic garden..., holocaust, scrutinant, contemplate, aftermath, consequence, deadlock, impasse and 153 more...
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the earth
Planetary chaos: terrain, landscape and geology excluding rocks. (See "the geologist" list for the latter.)
butte, karst, caldera, mesa, laccolith, cwm, crater, alp, precipice, sierra, badlands, prairie and 122 more...
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mariposa417's Words
cerulean, jewel, malfeasance, precipice, crossroads, beautiful, adore, sublime, superfluous, poppy, monarch, lashes and 101 more...
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curligirli0's Words
crapulous, swish, shiatsu, zen, xenoglossy, nincompoop, loquacious, pianissimo, onomatopoeia, imperturbable, silky, hosanas and 379 more...
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azd's Words
adamantine, abatial, ablate, ablative, abrogate, accretive, acromegaly, acrostic, actinism, actinic, acuity, adduce and 968 more...
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NTDW1
template, modal, sublingual, tandem, polycentric, septuagenarian, token, irrevocable, denotive, augural, aberrant, phlebotomy and 1188 more...
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heart of darkness
yawl, sea-reach, offing, barge, sprit, estuary, yarn, aft, mizzenmast, placid, gauzy, diaphanous and 141 more...
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Rilakkuma's list
The Velvetine Ruffians
gamine, waif, ruffian, villain, rake, libertine, velvetine, luminary, nom de plume, street urchin, epicurean, eventide and 256 more...
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cloudjuice's Words
schadenfreude, sordid, promulgate, erratic, erroneous, amalgamate, sesquipedalian, incongruous, psychosis, etymology, simulacrum, serendipity and 988 more...
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madamepsychosis's Words
mollify, salubrious, prandial, coup de grace, ineluctable, metempsychosis, pedant, conatus, oeuvre, laconic, solipsism, vapid and 265 more...
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