seashore
Americannoun
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land along the sea or ocean.
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Law. the ground between the ordinary high-water and low-water marks.
noun
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land bordering on the sea
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the land between the marks of high and low water
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of seashore
Explanation
The seashore is the land that borders an ocean or sea. She sells seashells on the seashore because that’s where the shells are, on the beach. Now say the whole thing three times fast. You can call the seashore the coast, the beach, or even just the shore. It's the area right next to the sea, and it can be rocky and dramatic or soft and sandy. Sometimes scientists use this word to mean the specific area that's covered with water at high tide but uncovered at low tide. This area is also known as the intertidal zone.
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.
I wanted to swim Tomales Bay, and I knew where I wanted to go: Heart’s Desire, in the Point Reyes National Seashore.
From Los Angeles Times • Oct. 7, 2025
“It was astonishing,” said research ecologist Jan Roletto, who sighted the whale about three miles west of Point Reyes National Seashore while aboard a research vessel for the Applied California Current Ecosystem Studies.
From Seattle Times • May 27, 2024
In November, a hiker was traversing the coastal terrain of California’s Point Reyes National Seashore when he came across an unusual sight: a ghostly badger padding down the trail.
From National Geographic • Feb. 12, 2024
Sarah Allen and Matthew Lau, wildlife biologists at the National Park Service, were surveying the northern elephant seal population at Point Reyes National Seashore, about 30 miles northwest of San Francisco.
From New York Times • Feb. 7, 2024
Captain Franklin was the man who had found Sunny Boy when he was drifting out to sea in a rowboat that summer, as related in the book called "Sunny Boy at the Seashore."
From Sunny Boy in the Big City by Wrenn, Charles L. (Charles Lewis)
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.
