Inlet
noun, verb ·Moderate ·High school level
Definitions
- 1 A body of water let into a coast, such as a bay, cove, fjord or estuary.
- 2 an opening through which fluid is admitted to a tube or container wordnet
- 3 A passage that leads into a cavity.
"1748. David Hume, An enquiry concerning human understanding. In: L. A. SELBY-BIGGE, M. A. Enquiries concerning the human understanding and concerning the principles of moral. 2. ed. London: Oxford University Press, 1973. § 15. by opening this new inlet for sensations, you also open an inlet for the ideas;"
- 4 an arm off of a larger body of water (often between rocky headlands) wordnet
- 1 To let in; admit. transitive
- 2 To insert; inlay. transitive
"The team said that many of the bones unearthed were the remains of children, leading them to believe the practice of deforming skulls “may have been inlet and dangerous.”"
- 3 To carve the wooden stock of a firearm so as to position the metal components in it.
Example
More examples"Beyond his small fleet of ships anchored safely past the shallow mud flats, the captain could just make out a row of low hills in the offing, but even with binoculars he could not see beyond the horizon to the mighty offshore wind turbines which he had sailed by on his approach to the inlet."
Etymology
From Middle English inlāte (“inlet, entrance”), from inleten (“to let in”), equivalent to in- + let. Compare Low German inlat (“inlet”), German Einlass (“inlet, entrance”).
From Middle English inleten, equivalent to in- + let. Cognate with Dutch inlaten (“to let in, admit”), Low German inlaten (“to let in”), German einlassen (“to admit, let in”), Swedish inlåta (“to enter, engage”).
Related phrases
More for "inlet"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.