saltmarsh

nounC2Very rare — outside the 30,000 commonest English words, so you will meet it in writing rather than in speechToo rare in one of the two pools to compare — fewer than 20 uses in speech or in writing

Other forms: saltmarshes

A saltmarsh is coastal grassland flooded by the sea at high tide. Walk the saltmarsh.

The plants there survive salt that would kill almost anything else. A saltmarsh absorbs storm surge better than a sea wall and costs nothing to maintain.

Definitions of saltmarsh

1nounsaltmarshCoastal grassland flooded by the sea at high tide.C2
“The saltmarsh was cut through with creeks that filled in minutes.”

saltmarsh is a habitat.

Where it comes from

Middle English
saltmarsh
English
salt marsh
English, today
saltmarsh

salt marsh comes from Middle English saltmarsh, saltmerssh, saltmersch, saltmerch, saltmersk, equivalent to salt + marsh.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practised in Nature & Weather

Practise this word

saltmarsh in the wild

S. alterniflorus is native to the Atlantic coast of the Americas from Newfoundland, Canada, south to northern Argentina, where it forms a dominant part of brackish coastal saltmarshes.
Sporobolus alterniflorus
The site has varied habitats, such as saltmarsh, mud flats, shingle spits and former gravel pits.
Colne Estuary
A peat seam in St Osyph Marsh has been dated to 4280 BP, and this marsh is important for saltmarsh morphology.
Colne Estuary
Stellaria humifusa, the saltmarsh starwort, is plant native to northern North America and Eurasia.
Stellaria humifusa
Baccharis glutinosa is a species of flowering plant in the family Asteraceae known by the common names saltmarsh baccharis, marsh baccharis and Douglas' falsewillow.
Baccharis glutinosa

From Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. These sentences were written by other people about their own subjects; they are here to show the word at work, not as anybody’s opinion.

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