estuary

American  

[es-choo-er-ee] / ˈɛs tʃuˌɛr i /

noun

plural

estuaries

1. that part of the mouth or lower course of a river in which the river's current meets the sea's tide.

2. an arm or inlet of the sea at the lower end of a river.

---

estuary British  

/ ˌɛstjʊˈɛərɪəl, ˈɛstjʊərɪ /

noun

1. the widening channel of a river where it nears the sea, with a mixing of fresh water and salt (tidal) water

2. an inlet of the sea

---

estuary Scientific  

/ ĕs′cho̅o̅-ĕr′ē /

1. The wide lower course of a river where it flows into the sea. Estuaries experience tidal flows and their water is a changing mixture of fresh and salt.

2. An arm of the sea that extends inland to meet the mouth of a river.

---

estuary Cultural  

1. A wide body of water formed where a large river meets the sea. It contains both fresh and salt water.

---

Other Word Forms

• estuarial adjective

Etymology

Origin of estuary

First recorded in 1530–40; from Latin aestuārium “channel, creek, inlet,” from aestu(s) “fire, heat, tide” + -ārium -ary

Example Sentences

She also helped Mike and others take the estuary restoration fight to Sacramento, to Washington, D.C., and to Mexico.

From Los Angeles Times

The beach is a good place to watch ships sailing out from the mouth of the Mersey estuary into the Irish Sea.

From BBC

That's because fish have to swim within two metres of the pipe inlet heads, and the estuary is 22km wide at that point.

From BBC

He started asking questions, and I set about explaining some of the words, like “estuary” and “salinity.”

From Literature

Van der Schatte Olivier said: "They show that, even in a dynamic estuary like this, we can successfully restore seagrass at scale when we use the right methods."

From BBC

Related Words

• inlet
• waterway