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What do we call those points on the sea shores where rivers join the sea?

tchrist
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Inquisitive
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  • Related: http://english.stackexchange.com/questions/42835/what-do-you-call-the-body-of-water-into-which-a-river-flows/77461#77461 – coleopterist Mar 20 '13 at 16:45
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    ...in particular, my answer there contains the answer to this question, as well as several other river-related geographic terms that you might find helpful (as do some of the other answers there). – T.E.D. Mar 20 '13 at 16:59

1 Answers1

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A river joins the sea at its mouth. That emphasizes the river, though, not the shoreline.

There are fancier words like estuary, firth, inlet, and the like, which perhaps better draw attention to what happens to the strand at that point, but mouth of the river is the most common.

tchrist
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    My vote goes to estuary. – moonstar Mar 20 '13 at 17:08
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    There are lots of words for such things, depending on which points are salient, and how one determines them. From the ocean, you could call it a landing or just a river. From the land, you might get a delta, or a swamp, or an estuary, or a bay, or a waterfall, or just about anything. There isn't a single word for every possible way of categorizing nature; there can't be. – John Lawler Mar 20 '13 at 17:56
  • @JohnLawler Are you being punny with salient? :) – tchrist Mar 20 '13 at 18:04
  • No, but it does illustrate how one can find metaphors when one is looking for them, doesn't it? Salience is semantics jargon for importance to a concept, like in a barroom fight, size and speed are salient variables, while eye color and nose size are not. – John Lawler Mar 20 '13 at 18:37
  • @JohnLawler Yes, John, I know. I also know where it comes from. I was referring the kind of sal- one takes cum grano salis. – tchrist Mar 20 '13 at 19:29
  • Yeah, but salis and salientis are from different roots. – John Lawler Mar 20 '13 at 19:40
  • It depends. San Francisco Bay, New York Harbor, Nile Delta, Thames Estuary, Milford Sound ... – Peter Shor Mar 20 '13 at 20:13
  • And, if we're to believe Top Gear, the Straits of Gibraltar. – Edwin Ashworth Mar 20 '13 at 22:01