Word.ws English Dictionary

bombora

bombora noun: a shallow isolated piece of reef located a distance offshore.

Noun

bombora (plural bomboras)

  1. (Australia) A shallow isolated piece of reef located a distance offshore.
    • The superior local knowledge of the Easter Island boatmen was a distracting influence, but on the way in I had decided to anchor on the sandy patch close under the bombora.1963, Patrick Gordon Taylor, The Sky Beyond, page 269
    • The remainder of my life was indoor stuff […] but even from school I could see the bomboras breaking way out to sea on a high swell, there at the corner of my eye.1993, Tim Winton, Land's Edge, Picador, published 2014, page 10
    Synonyms:
    bomb

Examples of bombora in a sentence

  • It took Sue Dockar a good half hour to swim out to her target bombora, a moderate swim in spearfishing terms.2008, Yvette Allum, The Lonely Sea, unnumbered page:
  • He was also considered to be one of Australia's best big-wave riders, tackling the Queenscliff and Bare Island bomboras on the very biggest days.2012, Phil Jarratt, Australia's Hottest 100 Surfing Legends, unnumbered page:

Synonyms of bombora

Forms of bombora

pluralbomboras
alternative formbomboora

Origin of bombora

From Australian Aboriginal, most likely Dharug bumbora (“a current off Dobroyd Head, Port Jackson”).

Questions about bombora

What does bombora mean?
Bombora means a shallow isolated piece of reef located a distance offshore.
How do you use bombora in a sentence?
It took Sue Dockar a good half hour to swim out to her target bombora, a moderate swim in spearfishing terms.
What part of speech is bombora?
Bombora is a noun.
What is the plural of bombora?
The plural of bombora is bomboras.

Words near bombora in the dictionary

  1. Bombon
  2. bombonne
  3. bombonnes
  4. bomboora
  5. bombooras
  6. bombora
  7. bomboras
  8. bombous
  9. Bombowlee
  10. Bombowlee Creek
  11. bomboy

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: bombora (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this entry: “bombora.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/bombora. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.