tidal

UK/ˈtaɪ.d(ə)l/US/ˈtaɪ.d(ə)l/

adjectiveB2+Common in everyday speech and writing · #8,194 of 15,258leans written

Tidal means affected by the rise and fall of the sea. A tidal river, tidal range, tidal power.

A tidal river rises and falls with the sea a long way inland — the Thames is tidal as far as Teddington. Tidal range is the difference between high and low water, and it varies enormously by place. Tidal power is predictable in a way wind is not, which is its whole attraction. Note tidal wave, which is a popular but wrong name for a tsunami, since a tsunami has nothing to do with tides.

Definitions of tidal

1adjectivetidalAffected by the rise and fall of the sea.B2+
“The tidal river rises and falls twice a day.”

tidal is a quality relating to tides.

Where it comes from

Tide plus -al, probably formed in English. Tide comes from Old English tid, meaning time, which is why Yuletide and eventide are about times rather than water.

Old English
tīd
English, today
tidal

From tide + -al. From tide + al. Probably a hybrid formation within English. Alternatively it might be from an unattested British Medieval Latin tīdālis, derived from rare tīda, from Old English tīd. The usual Latin word for “tidal” is aestuālis.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

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tidal in the wild

Tidal acceleration is an effect of the tidal forces between an orbiting natural satellite (e.g. the Moon) and the primary planet that it orbits (e.g.
Tidal acceleration
The process eventually leads to tidal locking, usually of the smaller body first, and later the larger body.
Tidal acceleration
The tidal force or tide-generating force is the difference in gravitational attraction between different points in a gravitational field.
Tidal force
In one half-day tidal cycle, around 100 billion tonnes of water flows in and out, twice the combined flow of all the world's rivers.
Bay of Fundy
Tidal power or tidal energy is harnessed by converting energy from tides into useful forms of power, mainly electricity using various methods.
Tidal power

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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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