salt marsh

American  

noun

1. a marshy tract that is wet with salt water or flooded by the sea.

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salt marsh British  

noun

1. an area of marshy ground that is intermittently inundated with salt water or that retains pools or rivulets of salt or brackish water, together with its characteristic halophytic vegetation

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salt marsh Scientific  

1. A marsh in which the water is saline, especially a coastal wetland that has halophyte vegetation and is regularly flooded at high tide. Coastal salt marshes help to preserve the shoreline by accommodating storm tides.

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Other Word Forms

• salt-marsh
  adjective
• saltmarsh
  adjective

Etymology

Origin of salt marsh

before 1000; Middle English saltmerche, Old English sealtne mersc

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

salt marsh

Environmentalists say the wall will accelerate erosion elsewhere while starving the neighboring salt marsh of sediment, hurting wildlife.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 8, 2026

Old stone walls near the shoreline were flattened, while the Exmoor bay's shingle ridge was breached and moved inland by around 90 metres, creating a salt marsh which was left to its natural course.

From BBC ● May 4, 2026

The Refuge contains multitudes — specifically salt marsh, mud flats, freshwater wetlands and streams amid temperate and old-growth forests, grasslands, coastal dunes and beach coastline.

From Seattle Times ● Apr. 10, 2024

What was once a landfill is now home to a large sports field, an ecological salt marsh, a dog run, a boardwalk, manicured lawns and Manhattan’s first public beach.

From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 26, 2023

In the late afternoon Mary took Will and Lyra along the riverbank, past the fishing posts where the nets were tied, and through the wide salt marsh toward the sea.

From "The Amber Spyglass" by Philip Pullman