Estuary

//ˈɛst͡ʃuˌɛɹi// name, noun, slang

name, noun, slang ·Common ·High school level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    A coastal water body where ocean tides and river water merge, resulting in a brackish water zone.

    "The railway then follows the widening estuary of the river, which at high tide has the appearance of a lake, but at low water presents a rather cheerless expanse of dark mud."

  2. 2
    the wide part of a river where it nears the sea; fresh and salt water mix wordnet
  3. 3
    An ocean inlet also fed by fresh river water.
Proper Noun
  1. 1
    Estuary English colloquial

    "Many of them would move to the new private housing estates springing up further east along the Thames Corridor, where they would learn to 'speak Estuary'."

Synonyms

All synonyms
armarmletavenuebaybayoubelt

Example

More examples

"The conservationist is against the building of a tidal barrage across the Severn estuary."

Etymology

From Latin aestuarium (“creek”, “estuary of a river”).

Related phrases

Estuary Englishestuary seahorseestuary english

More for "estuary"

SynonymsSentencesPronunciationTranslate

Next best steps

Find stronger synonymsSee usage examplesCheck pronunciationBrowse writing guides

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