lagoon
/ləˈɡuːn
/noun
1A stretch of salt water separated from the sea by a low sandbank or coral reef.For this photograph, Seidler placed himself on a white sand beach overlooking a turquoise lagoon....
- Behind us were two large saltwater lagoons separated by a path and small central bridge.
- The road runs the length of a thin peninsula separating the Caribbean Sea from a large saltwater lagoon.
1.1North American & Australian /NZ A small freshwater lake near a larger lake or river.The species apparently grew along shores of lakes and fresh-water lagoons....
- Kerala is blessed with rivers, lakes and lagoons and these offer a rare spectacle to tourists.
- They can be found in oceans, estuaries, freshwater streams, lagoons, lakes, shallow offshore waters and coastlines.
Synonyms
inlet, inland sea, bay, lake, bight, pool, pond, swim;
Scottish loch;
Anglo-Irish lough;
North American bayou
literary mere
1.2An artificial pool for the treatment of effluent or to accommodate an overspill from surface drains during heavy rain.They leave slurry channels and other pools or lagoons where they have developed to crawl very rapidly along walls and gangways into milking parlours and other farm production areas....
- Two types of insurance policies could reduce effluent pollution from lagoons.
- Forage produced from fields of bermudagrass serving as receivers of swine lagoon effluent is a potential feed source for ruminants.
Derivatives
lagoonal
- The Zinga 1 sequence is erosionally capped by Unconformity A, which is beneath the continental and/or the lagoonal deposits of the basal Zinga 2 sequence.
- Here, specimens of the shallow subtidal-intertidal cockle Katelysia rhytiphora have moved up profile from lagoonal facies into advancing aeolian dune sediments.
- The occurrence of this specimen in nearshore beach deposits is somewhat unusual, as articulated or associated remains of Cretaceous sea turtles are more commonly encountered in lagoonal or offshore marine shale and chalk.
Origin
Early 17th century: from Italian and Spanish laguna, from Latin lacuna (see lacuna).
lake from Old English:
A lake was once a pond or pool: it is from Old French lac, from Latin lacus ‘basin, pool, lake’. A small lacus was a lacuna, which became laguna in Spanish and Italian, and became lagoon (early 17th century) in English.