littoral
Americanadjective
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of or relating to the shore of a lake, sea, or ocean.
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(on ocean shores) of or relating to the biogeographic region between the sublittoral zone and the high-water line and sometimes including the supralittoral zone above the high-water line.
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of or relating to the region of freshwater lake beds from the sublittoral zone up to and including damp areas on shore.
noun
adjective
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of or relating to the shore of a sea, lake, or ocean
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biology inhabiting the shore of a sea or lake or the shallow waters near the shore
littoral fauna
noun
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Relating to the coastal zone between the limits of high and low tides. The littoral zone is subject to a wide range of environmental conditions, including high-energy wave action and intermittent periods of flooding and drying along with the associated fluctuations in exposure to solar radiation and extremes of temperature.
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Compare sublittoral
Etymology
Origin of littoral
First recorded in 1650–60; from Latin littorālis, variant of lītorālis “of the shore,” equivalent to lītor- (stem of lītus ) “shore” + -ālis, adjective suffix; see -al 1 ( def. ); Lido ( def. ), lido ( def. )
Explanation
Anything littoral has to do with a coast or shore. A littoral state has a coast, so Florida, California, and North Carolina are littoral states, to name a few. If you live far away from any water, then you probably won't hear the word littoral much because it refers to things related to shores and coasts. A house overlooking the ocean is littoral. A business is littoral if it sells things to people hanging out on the beach. You can also use littoral as a noun to mean the area near a coast or shore — if you grew up near the water, you grew up in a littoral.
Vocabulary lists containing littoral
Something's Fishy: A Fresh Catch of Aquatic Words
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Seas The Day: Words That Shore Are Beachy
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Ender's Game
Want to remember this word for good? Start your learning journey today with our library of interactive, themed word lists built by the experts at Vocabulary.com – we'll help you make the most of your study time!
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.
A relatively new missile-toting unit of Marines, based on Okinawa, is designed to fight in a contested littoral battlespace by dispersing, concealing themselves, and taking out enemy ships and aircraft.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 31, 2026
The Houthis command the Tihamah coastal plain, the eastern littoral of the Red Sea.
From Salon ● Jul. 14, 2024
The new discoveries will increase the ecological importance of the Mallorca channel seamounts and the littoral caves, providing compelling arguments for the Spanish government to emphasize the need for protection measures.
From Science Daily ● Mar. 7, 2024
The new JL-3 will have a range of 5,400 nautical miles and be able to target portions of the continental United States from Chinese littoral waters.
From Washington Times ● Nov. 8, 2023
Walled off from wet air by both the Andes and the Humboldt Current, the Peruvian littoral is astonishingly dry: the average annual precipitation is about two inches.
From "1491" by Charles C. Mann
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.
