Estuary vs. Creek — What's the Difference?

An estuary is a partially enclosed coastal body of brackish water with one or more rivers or streams flowing into it, and with a free connection to the open sea.Estuaries form a transition zone between river environments and maritime environments and are an example of an ecotone. Estuaries are subject both to marine influences such as tides, waves, and the influx of saline water and to riverine influences such as flows of freshwater and sediment.

The Muskogean language of the Creek.

The part of the wide lower course of a river where its current is met by the tides.

A member of a Native American people formerly inhabiting eastern Alabama, southwest Georgia, and northwest Florida and now located in central Oklahoma and southern Alabama. The Creek were removed to Indian Territory in the 1830s.

An arm of the sea that extends inland to meet the mouth of a river.

A Native American confederacy made up of the Creek and various smaller southeast tribes.

A coastal water body where ocean tides and river water merge, resulting in a brackish water zone.

A member of this confederacy. In all senses also called Muskogee1.

An ocean inlet also fed by fresh river water.

A small stream, often a shallow or intermittent tributary to a river. Also called regionally branch, brook1, kill2, run.

A place where water boils up; a spring that wells forth.

A channel or stream running through a salt marsh

A passage, as the mouth of a river or lake, where the tide meets the current; an arm of the sea; a frith.

Chiefly British A small inlet in a shoreline, extending farther inland than a cove.

Belonging to, or formed in, an estuary; as, estuary strata.

(British) A small inlet or bay, often saltwater, narrower and extending farther into the land than a cove; a recess in the shore of the sea, or of a river; the inner part of a port that is used as a dock for small boats.

The wide part of a river where it nears the sea; fresh and salt water mix

A stream of water (often freshwater) smaller than a river and larger than a brook; in Australia, also used of river-sized bodies of water.

Any turn or winding.

A small inlet or bay, narrower and extending further into the land than a cove; a recess in the shore of the sea, or of a river.

A stream of water smaller than a river and larger than a brook.

Any turn or winding.

A natural stream of water smaller than a river (and often a tributary of a river);

Any member of the Creek Confederacy (especially the Muskogee) formerly living in Georgia and Alabama but now chiefly in Oklahoma