different between estuary vs bight

English

Alternative forms

• æstuary (archaic)

Etymology

From Latin aestuarium (“creek”, “estuary of a river”).

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /??stj???i/, /??st????i/, /??st???i/

Noun

estuary (plural estuaries)

1. A coastal water body where ocean tides and river water merge, resulting in a brackish water zone.
2. An ocean inlet also fed by fresh river water.

Derived terms

• Estuary English

Translations

See also

• ecotone

Anagrams

• Autreys, Teruyas

English

Etymology

From Middle English bight, bi?t, by?t (also bought, bowght, bou?t, see bought), from Old English byht (“bend, angle, corner; bay, bight”), from Proto-Germanic *buhtiz (“bend, curve”), from Proto-Indo-European *b??g?- (“to bend”). Cognate with Scots bicht (“bight”), Dutch bocht (“bend, curve”), Low German Bucht (“bend, bay”), German Bucht (“bay, bight”), Danish bugt (“bay”), Icelandic bugða (“curve”), Albanian butë (“soft, flabby”) . Compare bought.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ba?t/
• Rhymes: -a?t
• Homophones: bite, by't, byte

Noun

bight (plural bights)

1. A corner, bend, or angle; a hollow

   the bight of a horse's knee

   the bight of an elbow

   • 1905, Robert Louis Stevenson, Travels with a Donkey in the Cévennes, page 166

     I spied a bight of meadow some way below the roadway in an angle of the river.

2. An area of sea lying between two promontories, larger than a bay, wider than a gulf
3. (geography) A bend or curve in a coastline, river, or other geographical feature.
4. A curve in a rope

Related terms

• Bight of Benin
• Bight of Biafra
• German Bight
• Great Australian Bight
• New York Bight

Translations

See also

• Appendix:Parts of the knot