estuary
/ˈɛstjʊəɹi//ˈɛst͡ʃuˌɛɹi/
estuary noun: a coastal water body where ocean tides and river water merge, resulting in a brackish water zone.

Noun
estuary (plural estuaries)
- 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.1953 February, H. A. Vallance, “To Brighton through the Shoreham Gap”, in Railway Magazine, page 82
- There's something special about tidal estuaries, due to the abundance of wildlife and the ever-changing scenes as the water ebbs or rises. Throw in some moody skies and filtered sunlight, and the views can resemble a painting by Turner - only you don't have to go to the National Gallery to see...2020 December 2, Paul Bigland, “My weirdest and wackiest Rover yet”, in Rail, page 65
- An ocean inlet also fed by fresh river water.
Proper noun capitalized: Estuary
Estuary
- Estuary English
- 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'.2015, Jonathan Schneer, The Thames: England's River
estuary meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Urdu and Bengali
estuary in Hindi
- मुहाना
estuary in Tamil
- கழிமுகம், கயவாய், முகத்துவாரம், அழிவி
estuary in Urdu
- ایسٹوری
estuary in Bengali
- place where ocean tides and river water merge
- মোহনা mōhona
More languagesFewer languages
- estuary in Telugu
- ఎస్ట్యూరీ
- estuary in Malayalam
- അഴിമുഖം, ആറ്റുവായ്, സമുദ്രവും നദിയും ചേരുന്ന ഇടം
- estuary in Kannada
- ನದೀಮುಖ nadīmukha
- estuary in Punjabi
- ਦਹਾਨਾ dahānā
- estuary in Tagalog
- wawa, estero, estuwaryo
- estuary in Arabic
- مَصَبّ maṣabb, فُغْرَة fuḡra, خَوْر ḵawr
- estuary in Malay
- muara
- estuary in Indonesian
- estuari
- estuary in Persian
- مصب masabb, پایرود pây-rôd, خور xowr
- estuary in Thai
- ปากน้ำ bpàak-náam
- estuary in Vietnamese
- cửa sông
Examples of estuary in a sentence
- Tidal-dominated, coastal plain deposit: tidal channels (estuaries), tidal flats, marsh or swamp; deposits are generally on delta margin or in interdeltaic areas.
- In real estuaries, river water and seawater seldom mix together directly as endmembers.
- Now the estuary has silted up, and only small pleasure craft can sail up the narrow channel.
Forms of estuary
| plural | estuaries |
|---|---|
| alternative form (archaic) | æstuary |
Origin of estuary
From Latin aestuarium (“creek”, “estuary of a river”).
Words formed from estuary
Phrases with estuary
Questions about estuary
- What does estuary mean?
- Estuary means a coastal water body where ocean tides and river water merge, resulting in a brackish water zone.
- What is estuary in Hindi?
- Estuary in Hindi is मुहाना. See Estuary meaning in Hindi.
- What part of speech is estuary?
- Estuary can be a noun or a proper noun.
- How do you pronounce estuary?
- Estuary is pronounced /ˈɛstjʊəɹi/ (UK).
- What is the plural of estuary?
- The plural of estuary is estuaries.
Words near estuary in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: estuary (page history and authors); Estuary (page history and authors); estuary (Hindi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); estuary (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); estuary (Urdu, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); estuary (Telugu, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); estuary (Malayalam Wiktionary) (page history and authors); ਦਹਾਨਾ (Punjabi) (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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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-estuary.wav, LL-Q1860 (eng)-Wodencafe-estuary.wav.
Cite this entry: “estuary.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/estuary. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.
