Breakwater

//ˈbɹeɪkˌwɔːtə// name, noun

name, noun ·Moderate ·High school level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    A construction in or around a harbour designed to break the force of the sea and to provide shelter for vessels lying inside.

    "[…]there is a channel, some three miles wide between the city and the mainland, and some mile and a half wide between it and the sandy breakwater called the Lido, which divides the lagoon from the Adriatic,"

  2. 2
    a protective structure of stone or concrete; extends from shore into the water to prevent a beach from washing away wordnet
  3. 3
    A low bulkhead across the forecastle deck of a ship which diverts water breaking over the bows into the scuppers.
  4. 4
    A wooden or concrete barrier, usually perpendicular to the shore, intended to prevent the movement of sand along a coast.
Proper Noun
  1. 1
    A suburb of Geelong, Victoria, Australia

Synonyms

All synonyms
abutmentanchorageanchorage groundarc-boutantarch dambackstop

Example

More examples

"The breakwater had no effect against the tsunami."

Etymology

From break + water. Compare Dutch breekwater (“breakwater”). Compare firebreak.

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.