reef
A chain or range of rocks, sand, or coral lying at or near the surface of the water.
Other meanings
A large vein of auriferous quartz; hence, any body of rock yielding valuable ore.
A portion of a sail rolled and tied down to lessen the area exposed in a high wind.
A kind of
- ridge
Kinds of reef
- coral reef
Example sentences
Word history
From Old Norse "rif" (rib, reef).
Where this comes from
This definition is adapted from “reef” on Wiktionary, by its contributors; example sentences are from Tatoeba, credited to their authors above; related-word lists use Open English WordNet (CC BY 4.0, based on Princeton WordNet), published under CC BY-SA 4.0. This page is published under the same licence.