littoral

adjective lit·to·ral \ ˈli-tə-rəl ; ˌli-tə-ˈral , -ˈräl \

|Updated on: 5 Jun 2018

Examples: littoral in a Sentence

Editor's Note: Did You Know?

Definition of littoral

: of, relating to, or situated or growing on or near a shore especially of the sea

littoral waters

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Examples of littoral in a Sentence

littoral warfare includes amphibious landings

Recent Examples of littoral from the Web

More than two decades after Rachel Carson published The Edge of the Sea, another marine biologist developed a fascination with Maine’s littoral dwellers.

— ben goldfarb, Smithsonian, "How Seaweed Connects Us All," 31 May 2018
Among the military hardware authorized under the proposal: 77 new F-35 aircraft, two littoral combat ships, two Virginia-class submarines and $85 million worth of Black Hawk helicopters for the Army National Guard.

— michael collins and nicole gaudiano, USA TODAY, "House passes defense bill authorizing pay raise for troops, new jets and President Trump's military parade," 24 May 2018
Fleet size wasn’t increased, and at least with regard to the littoral combat ship (LCS), the service seriously compromised on the quality of a frigate-sized warship class.

— WSJ, "Navy Faces Global Chinese Maritime Threat," 21 May 2018
The USS Little Rock is a Freedom-class littoral combat ship built by Marinette Marine on the shores of the Menominee River in Marinette, Wisconsin.

— kyle mizokami, Popular Mechanics, "The U.S. Navy’s Newest Ship Is Trapped in Canada," 22 Jan. 2018
The bride’s father retired as the vice president in charge of design and engineering of the United State’s Navy’s littoral combat ship construction at Bath Iron Works, a division, in Bath, Me.

— New York Times, "Mary Baskerville, Theodore Newman," 10 Dec. 2017
The Navy currently fields 17 Virginia-class fast attack submarines, which are built to operate in the world's littoral and deep waters.

— zachary cohen, CNN, "US launches 'most advanced' stealth sub amid undersea rivalry," 26 Oct. 2017
The other part is building closer defence co-operation with its non-NATO neighbour, Finland, as well as with America and Baltic littoral states in NATO.

— The Economist, "As Russia threatens, Sweden ponders joining NATO," 21 Sep. 2017
But to make the ships work, crews selected for the littoral combat fleet needed to perform multiple jobs, putting a premium on training.

— carl prine, sandiegouniontribune.com, "Once maligned, LCS program now a model in Navy training," 1 Sep. 2017

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'littoral.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

Did You Know?

You're most likely to encounter littoral in contexts relating to the military and marine sciences. A littoral combat ship is a fast and easily maneuverable combat ship built for use in coastal waters. And in marine ecology, the littoral zone is a coastal zone characterized by abundant dissolved oxygen, sunlight, nutrients, and generally high wave energies and water motion. Littoral can also be found as a noun referring to a coastal region or, more technically, to the shore zone between the high tide and low tide points. The adjective is the older of the two, dating from the mid-17th century; the noun dates from the early 19th century. The word comes to English from Latin litoralis, itself from litor- or litus, meaning "seashore."

Origin and Etymology of littoral

Latin litoralis, from litor-, litus seashore

NEW! Time Traveler

First Known Use: circa 1656

in the meaning defined above

See Words from the same year

littoral Synonyms

Other Oceanography Terms

littoral, sound

littoral

noun

Definition of littoral

: a coastal region; especially : the shore zone between high tide and low tide points

Recent Examples of littoral from the Web

The USS Jackson, a littoral, or shallow-water, combat ship, traveled from Astoria to Portland on Thursday, arriving in downtown Portland for Fleet Week.

— beth nakamura, OregonLive.com, "Combat ship USS Jackson arrives in Portland for Fleet Week," 8 June 2017
Specifically, at a time when military strategists assessed that the greatest threats to Chinese security were coming from the sea off China’s littorals, the PLA was still dominated institutionally and doctrinally by the ground forces.

— Bloomberg.com, "Xi Revamping China's Military to Win Wars, Finkelstein Says: Q&A," 18 May 2017