shore

shore n Shore, coast, beach, strand, bank, littoral, foreshore are comparable when they mean land bordering a body or stream of water.

Shore is the general word for the land immediately bordering on the sea, a lake, or a large stream.

Coast denotes the land along the sea regarded especially as a boundary.

Beach applies to the pebbly or sandy shore washed by the sea or a lake

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a rocky shore with here and there a cove with a beach

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Both shore and beach may denote a resort frequented for pleasure or vacation. In this use shore more specifically indicates proximity to the sea

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spend the summer at the shore

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and beach a place adapted (as by the presence of a sandy beach) to the use of swimmers or sunbathers

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spend a part of each day at the beach

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Strand is elevated for shore or beach

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to this lakeside, as to the holiest strand in Europe, pilgrims full of soul were drawn in thousands— L. P. Smith

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Bank denotes the steep or sloping margin of a stream. Littoral is a technical or somewhat pretentious term occurring especially in geographic, political, and scientific writings for the whole coast or an extended, clearly specified portion of the coast of a particular sea or country; it may imply extension farther inland than coast usually implies

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the whole Mediterranean littoral is . . . subject to earthquakes— Scribner's Mag.

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Foreshore is applied sometimes to the part of the shore between high and low watermarks but at other times is extended to include the beach.