estuary
noun
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A partly enclosed coastal body of water in which river water is mixed with seawater is called an estuary. An estuary is thus defined by salinity rather than geography. Many coastal features designated by other names are in fact estuaries (for instance, Chesapeake Bay). Some of the oldest continuous civilizations have flourished in estuarine environments (for example, the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, the Nile delta, and the Ganges delta). Cities such as London (Thames River), New York (Hudson River), and Montreal (St. Lawrence River) developed on estuaries and became important commercial centers.
Examples of estuary in a Sentence
Ut Community Press, San Diego Union-Tribune, 31 Aug. 2025
Croatan spans 160,000 acres and includes pine forests, saltwater estuaries, bogs, and raised swamps.
—Tara Massouleh McCay, Southern Living, 22 Aug. 2025
The vast majority of cells that were present, just in a normal estuary, had these really exotic new branches on the tree of life that nobody knew anything about.
—Laura Poppick, Quanta Magazine, 20 Aug. 2025
But for wetland biologists and others with a stake in the health of the surrounding Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta, the largest estuary on the West Coast, the birds represent the latest – and an exponentially growing – threat to the few remaining wetlands left in California.
—Calmatters, Mercury News, 14 Aug. 2025
See All Example Sentences for estuary
Cite this Entry
“Estuary.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/estuary. Accessed 11 Sep. 2025.
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estuary
noun
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