Word of the Day Archive
Friday October 3, 2008
littoral \LIT-er-uhl\
, adjective:
1. Pertaining to the shore of a lake, sea, or ocean.
2. (On ocean shores) of or pertaining to the biogeographic region between the sublittoral zone and the high-water line and sometimes including the supralittoral zone above the high-water line.
3. Of or pertaining to the region of freshwater lake beds from the sublittoral zone up to and including damp areas on shore.
noun:
1. A littoral region.
The extensive artificialization of lake shorelines reduces the native littoral vegetation in quantity and quality.
-- Alex Córdoba-Aguilar, Dragonflies and Damselflies
There was an exuberant fierceness in the littoral here, a vital competition for existence.
-- John Steinbeck, The Grapes of Wrath
Littoral stems from the Latin word lītus which meant "shore." It was replaced by the Old English word shore but is still used by scientists.
Dictionary.com Entry and Pronunciation for littoral
