embayment

American  

[em-bey-muhnt] / ɛmˈbeɪ mənt /

noun

1. a coastal recess that forms a bay.

2. Physical Geography. the process by which a bay is formed.

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embayment British  

/ ɪmˈbeɪmənt /

noun

1. a shape resembling a bay

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Etymology

Origin of embayment

First recorded in 1805–15; embay + -ment

Example Sentences

"It is possible that the changes we see today on Thwaites and Pine Island glaciers -- and potentially across the entire Amundsen Sea embayment -- were essentially set in motion in the 1940s."

From Science Daily • Feb. 26, 2024

The Tonto wends into a huge, red-walled embayment, called the Inferno, and our view — while stirring — holds distressingly steady.

From Washington Post • Apr. 8, 2021

In the East Siberian Sea, they steered the Pangaea into an embayment in the ice cap that Ousland, who closely studies satellite images of the Arctic, had observed growing for years.

From National Geographic • Dec. 24, 2020

Flag Fen was a series of wooden trackways constructed between two areas of high ground at a time when the sea level slowly flooded the low-lying embayment.

From The Guardian • Aug. 17, 2012

Soon to see that the frightened animal has taken refuge in an angular embayment between two projecting buttresses of rock, where he stands cowering and trembling.

From Gaspar the Gaucho A Story of the Gran Chaco by Tilney, F.C.