lagoon

[luh-goon]

SEE MORE SYNONYMS FOR lagoon ON THESAURUS.COM

noun

an area of shallow water separated from the sea by low sandy dunes.Compare laguna.

Also lagune. any small, pondlike body of water, especially one connected with a larger body of water.

an artificial pool for storage and treatment of polluted or excessively hot sewage, industrial waste, etc.

RELATED WORDS

pond, pool, bayou, marsh, gulf, shoal

Nearby words

Origin of lagoon

1605–15; earlier laguna (singular), lagune (plural) < Italian < Latin lacūna (singular), lacūnae (plural) ditch, pool, akin to lacus basin, lake¹; see lacuna

Related formsla·goon·al, adjective

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019

Examples from the Web for lagoon

No one knows exactly why 29-year-old Iranian costume design student Mahtab Savoji turned up dead in the Venice lagoon last week.
Iranian Found In Venice Lagoon, Alleged Victim Of Botched Sex Game|Barbie Latza Nadeau|February 5, 2014|DAILY BEAST
I wind up driving into a lagoon of some kind and presumably drowning.
Grand Theft Auto V Review: The Best Game Ever?!|Winston Ross|September 17, 2013|DAILY BEAST
A one-legged torso wearing only a stiletto-heeled boot was found floating in a Venice lagoon.
Headless Torso Found in Venice Lagoon|Barbie Latza Nadeau|June 2, 2013|DAILY BEAST
It was a perfect lagoon island, consisting of a circle of land of a light clay colour, the lagoon of a beautiful blue tint.
The Cruise of the Dainty|William H. G. Kingston

His place is on the lagoon side of the island, hard by the palace.
In the South Seas|Robert Louis Stevenson
On the single isle of Makatea, where the lagoon is now a marsh, the disease has made a home.
In the South Seas|Robert Louis Stevenson
It is located at the extreme end of a lagoon some twelve miles in circumference.
The World and Its People: Book VII|Anna B. Badlam
It was at this period when he kept the most close to the lagoon side, and as far as he dared, abode in the cover of his hut.
Island Nights' Entertainments|Robert Louis Stevenson

British Dictionary definitions for lagoon

lagoon

noun

a body of water cut off from the open sea by coral reefs or sand bars

any small body of water, esp one adjoining a larger one

Also (rare): lagune

Word Origin for lagoon

C17: from Italian laguna, from Latin lacūna pool; see lacuna

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Word Origin and History for lagoon

lagoon

1670s, lagune, earlier laguna (1610s), from French lagune or directly from Italian laguna "pond, lake," from Latin lacuna "pond, hole," from lacus "pond" (see lake (n.1)). Originally in reference to the region of Venice; applied 1769 (by Capt. Cook) to the lake-like stretch of water enclosed in a South Seas atoll. Also cf. -oon.

Science definitions for lagoon