mud flat
2
4.1
- noun
- /mʌd flæt/
:
planicie de barro
- Outside, the two little boys played in the mud flats at the bottom of the ravine.
- salt-encrusted mud flat
- mud flat and marshes
- extensive mud flats
Examples
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The birds flocked to the mud flats to feed when the tide receded, finding plenty of food among the wet ground.
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UNESCO describes the Wadden Sea as "the largest unbroken system of intertidal sand and mud flats in the world."
Blog text (31) -
I'll be able to walk home across the mud flats later.
Fiction book (2000) -
The camera pans across an underwater setting, the Puget Sound mud flats.
Academic text (2009) -
The cracked, dry earth suddenly gave way to mud flats, and her shoes squelched and sank into the mud, sometimes sticking, which slowed her progress.
Fiction book (1996) -
The air stayed sultry and was thick with pungent river smells: dead fish, mud flats, and rushes.
Fiction book (1993) -
The interim estimate is that more than 1,500 kilometers (km) of coastal salt marshes, beaches, mud flats, and mangroves are oiled.
Academic text (2011) -
On the shore, the children explored the mud flats at low tide, discovering small crabs and shells.
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During our hike, we marveled at the unique ecosystem of the mud flats that appeared as the sea withdrew.
Synonyms
Surface Forms
Morphology
The noun is directly and compositionally built from 'mud' (wet, sticky earth) + 'flat' (level area), so a learner who knows both words can infer it refers to a level area of mud. The specific coastal/tidal detail (covered at high tide, exposed at low tide) is extra encyclopedic information but does not prevent the core meaning being transparently understood; this compound pattern is cross-linguistically common.
Etymology
Mud flat names a wide, flat area of mud near the sea. These places are 'covered at high tide' and 'exposed at low tide', so the name means the flat muddy land along the shore.