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embayment

embayment

9.8
A curved part of a coast that makes a sheltered bay
  • noun
  • /ɪmˈbeɪmənt/
translation icon : ensenada
  • The boat glided smoothly into the sheltered embayment, providing a perfect spot for our picnic.
  • windward embayment

Examples

  • Because of this, windward embayments tend to support more estuarine fisheries than leeward areas.

    Academic text (1993)
  • Reefs and their fauna may also be found within embayments and estuaries in Hawaii.

    Academic text (1993)
  • We entered that, and the terrain immediately opened back out into a round embayment perhaps a quarter-mile across.

    Fiction book (1993)
  • We had driven our wagon out of the first narrow opening and into the wide embayment when I saw a cloud of dust coming out of a side path.

    Fiction book (1993)
  • Schools of adults and juveniles are targeted by fishermen as they enter and leave embayments.

    Academic text (1993)
  • Landscapes with nonpyrogenic tendencies, in particular the Mississippi embayment and the northern hardwood region, displayed little change.

    Academic text (2008)
  • The demarcations between two hunting territories were bodies of water, including lakes, river systems, estuaries, or embayments.

    Academic text (2018)
  • The Caspian's outlet to Kara-Bogaz-Gol, a large shallow eastern embayment where large quantities of water evaporated, was actually dammed.

    Academic text (1996)
  • Kaneohe is a windward embayment containing a sandbar and many patch and fringing reefs.

    Academic text (1993)
  • The double-mountain formation creates two natural embayments, windward Kahului and leeward Ma'alaea Bay.

    Academic text (1993)

Synonyms

bay
vsembayment
114 1.0

A part of the sea partly surrounded by land

is the same size range between cove and gulf
reentrance
vsembayment
8.9

A small bay along a coast where the land curves inward

is larger in size between cove and gulf

How Big

gulf
311 2.3
embayment
9.8
cove
75 3.5

Surface Forms

embayment singular
embayments plural

Morphology

embayment = embay (transparent) = em + bay + embay + ment

Formed by adding the noun-forming suffix '-ment' to the verb 'embay' (em- + bay), so the result meaning is a straightforward nominalization of 'embay'.

Etymology

Embayment breaks into em- ('in' or 'into') + bay + -ment, so it literally means a part of the coast 'made into a bay'. So an embayment is a bay-like indentation of the shoreline that shelters water.