Word.ws English Dictionary

close reach

close reach noun: the point of sail where the wind is blowing just ahead of the beam of the vessel.

Noun

close reach (plural close reaches)

  1. The point of sail where the wind is blowing just ahead of the beam of the vessel
    • We're sailing on a close reach.

Verb

close reach (third-person singular simple present close reaches, present participle close reaching, simple past and past participle close reached)

  1. To sail on a close reach

Forms of close reach

Noun
pluralclose reaches
Verb
third-person singular presentclose reaches
present participleclose reaching
past participleclose reached
pastclose reached

Questions about close reach

What does close reach mean?
Close reach means the point of sail where the wind is blowing just ahead of the beam of the vessel.
What part of speech is close reach?
Close reach can be a noun or a verb.
What is the plural of close reach?
The plural of close reach is close reaches.

Words near close reach in the dictionary

  1. close quarter
  2. close quarters
  3. close range
  4. close ranges
  5. close ranks
  6. close reach
  7. close reached
  8. close reaches
  9. close reaching
  10. close reading
  11. close round

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: close reach (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.

Last updated:

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