littoral

English

Alternative forms

• litoral

Etymology

From (deprecated template usage) [etyl]  littoralis, from litoris (genitive of litus). The doubled 't' is a late medieval addition, and the more classical litoral is also sometimes found. Cognate to French littoral, Spanish litoral, and more distantly to English lido (“outdoor pool”), via Italian lido (“beach, shore”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈlɪtəɹəl/
• Homophone: literal

Adjective

littoral (not comparable)

1. Of or relating to the shore, especially the seashore.

Usage notes

• Specifically refers to the water at the shore, rather than the land, particularly in the phrase littoral zone.

Quotations

1. "During his tenure, 'From the Sea' became the Navy-Marine Corps joint strategic concept, wherein the Navy and Marine Corps reoriented doctrinal focus toward littoral warfare." ― Semper Fidelis Memorandum for Retired Marines, Volume 58, No. 2

Synonyms

• (relating to the seashore): intertidal

Coordinate terms

• coastal

Translations

of or relating to the shore, especially the seashore

• Catalan: litoral (ca)
• Dutch: kust-
• Galician: litoral (gl) m
• Greek: παράκτιος (el) (paráktios)
• Hungarian: litorális, tengerparti (hu), tengermelléki, partvidéki
• Ido: litorala (io)
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Italian: litoraneo (it)
• Latin: lītorālis
• Maori: matāwhanga
• Russian: прибре́жный (ru) (pribréžnyj)
• Spanish: litoral
• Swedish: kust-

• Littoral on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

Noun

littoral (plural littorals)

1. A shore
   • 1921, Sir Charles Eliot

     ...these Chams belonged to the Malay-Polynesian group and their distribution along the littoral suggests that they were invaders from the sea...

2. The zone of a coast between high tide and low tide levels.
   • 1907, Harold Bindloss, chapter 6, in The Dust of Conflict‎^[1]:

     The night was considerably clearer than anybody on board her desired when the schooner Ventura headed for the land. It rose in places, black and sharp against the velvety indigo, over her dipping bow, though most of the low littoral was wrapped in obscurity.

   • 2006, Edwin Black, chapter 2, in Internal Combustion‎^[2]:

     Buried within the Mediterranean littoral are some seventy to ninety million tons of slag from ancient smelting, about a third of it concentrated in Iberia. This ceaseless industrial fueling caused the deforestation of an estimated fifty to seventy million acres of woodlands.

Synonyms

• (zone between high- and low-tide): intertidal zone, foreshore, littoral range

Translations

the shore

• Dutch: kust (nl), kuststreek (nl), kustgebied (nl)
• Greek: ακτή (el) f (aktí)
• Ido: litoro (io)
• Italian: litoraneo (it) m, spiaggia (it) f
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Maori: matāwhanga, ara o Hinekirikiri
• Russian: бе́рег (ru) m (béreg)
• Spanish: litoral m

the zone of a coast between high tide and low tide levels — see foreshore

Derived terms

Derived terms

• circumlittoral
• infralittoral

• sublittoral
• supralittoral

Related terms

• lido

Anagrams

• tortilla

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French

Etymology

From (deprecated template usage) [etyl] Latin littoralis, from litoris (genitive of litus).

Pronunciation

• Audio:

  (file)

Adjective

littoral (feminine littorale, masculine plural littoraux, feminine plural littorales)

1. littoral, coastal

Noun

littoral m (plural littoraux)

1. littoral

Further reading

• “littoral”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

Anagrams

• tortilla