estuary

See also: Estuary

English

Alternative forms

• æstuary (archaic)

Etymology

From Latin aestuarium (“creek”, “estuary of a river”).

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈɛstjʊəɹi/, /ˈɛst͡ʃʊəɹi/, /ˈɛst͡ʃəɹi/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• (US) IPA^(key): /ˈɛst͡ʃuˌɛɹi/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

Noun

estuary (plural estuaries)

Estuary on Roggenplaat island

1. A coastal water body where ocean tides and river water merge, resulting in a brackish water zone.
   • 1953 February, H. A. Vallance, “To Brighton through the Shoreham Gap”, in Railway Magazine, page 82:

     The railway then follows the widening estuary of the river, which at high tide has the appearance of a lake, but at low water presents a rather cheerless expanse of dark mud.

   • 2020 December 2, Paul Bigland, “My weirdest and wackiest Rover yet”, in Rail, page 65:

     There's something special about tidal estuaries, due to the abundance of wildlife and the ever-changing scenes as the water ebbs or rises. Throw in some moody skies and filtered sunlight, and the views can resemble a painting by Turner - only you don't have to go to the National Gallery to see this, it's brought to your seat on a train.

2. An ocean inlet also fed by fresh river water.

Derived terms

• estuarial
• estuarian
• estuaried
• Estuary English
• estuary seahorse
• palaeoestuary
• subestuary

 

Translations

place where ocean tides and river water merge

• Afrikaans: estuarium
• Albanian: deltë (sq) f
• Arabic: مَصَبّ m (maṣabb), فُغْرَة f (fuḡra), خَوْر m (ḵawr)
• Armenian: գետաբերան (hy) (getaberan)
• Azerbaijani: çay ağzı, mənsəb (az)
• Basque: estuario
• Belarusian: эстуа́рый m (estuáryj), ву́сце n (vúscje)
• Bengali: মোহনা (bn) (mōhona)
• Bulgarian: естуа́р m (estuár)
• Burmese: please add this translation if you can
• Catalan: estuari (ca) m
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 河口 (zh) (hékǒu), 出海口 (chūhǎikǒu), 入海口 (zh) (rùhǎikǒu)

• Classical Nahuatl: amaitl
• Czech: ústí (cs) n
• Danish: æstuarium n
• Dutch: estuarium (nl) n
• Esperanto: estuaro
• Estonian: estuaar, lehtersuue
• Faroese: ósi m, áarósi m
• Finnish: murtovesi (fi), murtovesialue, estuaari (fi)
• French: estuaire (fr) m
• Galician: esteiro (gl) m, ría (gl) f
• Georgian: ესტუარი (esṭuari)
• German: Ästuar (de) n, Flussmündung (de) f, Mündungsgebiet n
• Greek: εκβολή (el) f (ekvolí), κολπίσκος (el) m (kolpískos)
• Hawaiian: muliwai
• Hungarian: tölcsértorkolat (hu)
• Icelandic: ármynni n, árós f, ós f
• Ido: estuario (io)
• Indonesian: estuari (id)
• Iranun: penggak
• Irish: inbhir m
• Italian: estuario (it) m
• Japanese: 河口 (ja) (かこう kakō)
• Kannada: ನದೀಮುಖ (kn) (nadīmukha)
• Korean: 삼각강(三角江) (samgakgang), 하구(河口) (ko) (hagu), 강어귀 (gang'eogwi)
• Latin: aestuārium n
• Latvian: grīva (lv) f, estuārijs m
• Lithuanian: estuarija f
• Macedonian: естуар m (estuar)
• Malay: muara
• Manx: inver
• Maori: pūaha, pūwaha, pūahatanga, wahapū
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: estuar n

  Nynorsk: estuar n

• Occitan: estuari (oc) m
• Ottoman Turkish: لیمان (liman)
• Persian: مصب (fa) (masabb), پای‌رود (pây-rôd), خور (fa) (xowr)
• Polish: estuarium (pl) n, ujście (pl) n
• Portuguese: estuário (pt) m
• Romanian: estuar (ro) n
• Russian: эстуа́рий (ru) m (estuárij), у́стье (ru) n (ústʹje)
• Scottish Gaelic: inbhir m
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: естуариј m, естуар m

  Roman: estuarij (sh) m, estuar m

• Slovak: ústie n
• Slovene: estuarij (sl) m
• Spanish: estuario m
• Swedish: estuarium n, estuarie
• Tagalog: wawa
• Thai: ปากน้ำ (th) (bpàak-náam)
• Turkish: haliç (tr)
• Ukrainian: естуа́рій m (estuárij), у́стя n (ústja), ги́рло (uk) n (hýrlo)
• Vietnamese: cửa sông (vi)
• Welsh: aber (cy)
• West Coast Bajau: boa' soang

an ocean inlet also fed by fresh river water

• Galician: ría (gl) f
• German: Meeresarm (de) m
• Spanish: ría (es) f

See also

• ecotone

Anagrams

• Autreys, Teruyas