coastal
Americanadjective
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of coastal
Explanation
Coastal things are near the ocean. If you like spending time at the beach, you might take a trip to a sunny, coastal vacation spot. Be sure to pack your swimsuit! You might read phrases like "coastal waters" or "coastal erosion" in an environmental science textbook. The coast is the land that borders an ocean or sea, and the adjective coastal describes things that affect the coast or are located there. Before it meant "edge of the land," coast referred to a body part—specifically, the rib or "flank."
Vocabulary lists containing coastal
The United States
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South America - Middle School
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Canada - Introductory
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Reporter Sara Ashley O’Brien: When I joined the Journal, in the fall of 2022, my first story looked at a little-known drug called Ozempic being injected by coastal elites to slim down.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 20, 2026
In Florida’s 25th District, a newly drawn coastal area north of Miami, incumbent Rep. Jared Moskowitz defeated democratic socialist and activist Oliver Larkin.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 19, 2026
The earlier trial of Jonathan Rinderknecht collapsed after a jury deadlocked on whether or not he was responsible for the Palisades fire that laid waste to the upmarket coastal enclave and nearby Malibu.
From Barron's ● Aug. 19, 2026
Ancient coastal environments are especially promising places to search.
From Science Daily ● Aug. 17, 2026
There’d be little villages with streams going through them, white monuments on hillsides, old churches beside fields; if she was telling us about a coastal place, there’d be beaches crowded with people, cliffs with seagulls.
From "Never Let Me Go" by Kazuo Ishiguro
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
