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beach

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beach¹

  • /biːt͡ʃ/
  • [bɪi̯t͡ʃ]

Sounds like beech · Rhymes with -iːtʃ

Where it comes from

From Middle English bache, bæcche (“bank, sandbank”), from Old English beċe (“beck, brook, stream”), from Proto-West Germanic *baki, from Proto-Germanic *bakiz (“brook”), from Proto-Indo-European *bʰeg- (“flowing water”).

Cognates

Cognate with Cimbrian pach (“brook, creek, stream”), Dutch beek (“brook, stream”), German Bach (“brook, stream”), German Low German Beek (“brook, stream”), Luxembourgish Baach (“brook, stream”), Mòcheno pòch (“brook, creek, stream”), Vilamovian bāh, baoch (“brook, stream”), Danish bæk (“brook”), Icelandic bekkur (“creek, spring, stream”), Norwegian Bokmål and Norwegian Nynorsk bekk (“brook, creek, stream”), Swedish bäck (“brook, creek, stream”); also Lithuanian banga (“billow, wave”). More at batch, beck.

noun beaches

  1. The shore of a body of water, especially when sandy or pebbly. Pretty soon I struck into a sort of path[…]. It twisted and turned,[…]and opened out into a big clear space like a lawn. And, back of the lawn, was a big, old-fashioned house, with piazzas stretching in front of it, and all blazing with lights. 'Twas the house I'd seen the roof of from the beach.
  2. A horizontal strip of land, usually sandy, adjoining water. Up and down, the beach lay empty for miles.

    Similar: backshore, sand, strand

  3. Kent, UK, dialectal The loose pebbles of the seashore, especially worn by waves; shingle.
  4. euphemistic Synonym of gravel trap.

    Similar: gravel trap

  5. A dry, dusty pitch or situation, as though playing on sand. I never realised Lincoln was a seaside town. BRIAN LAWS Scunthorpe manager, after losing on a liberally sanded beach of a pitch
  6. euphemistic Euphemistic form of bitch (taboo swear word). That beach should be punished!

verb beaches · beaching · beached

  1. intransitive To run aground on a beach. When we finally beached, the land was scarcely less wet than the sea.
  2. transitive To run (something) aground on a beach. It seems that some honest mariners of Dover, or Sandwich, or some one of the Cinque Ports, had after a hard chase succeeded in killing and beaching a fine whale which they had originally descried afar off from the shore.
  3. of a vehicle To run into an obstacle or rough or soft ground, so that the floor of the vehicle rests on the ground and the wheels cannot gain traction.

Similar: strand

Beach²

Where it comes from

English surname reflecting multiple origins, including the nouns beach and beech, and Americanized from the German surname Bisch.

proper noun Beachs · Beaches

  1. countable, uncountable A surname. “The commissioner does not affect the numbers,’’ Beach said. “They don’t collect the data. They don’t massage the data. They don’t organize it.”
  2. countable, uncountable A surname from English
  3. countable, uncountable A surname from landforms
  4. countable, uncountable A surname from German
  5. countable, uncountable A hamlet in Bitton parish, South Gloucestershire district, Gloucestershire, England, United Kingdom (OS grid ref ST7070).
  6. countable, uncountable An unincorporated community in Ware County, Georgia.
  7. countable, uncountable An unincorporated community in Webster County, Missouri.
  8. countable, uncountable A small city, the county seat of Golden Valley County, North Dakota.
  9. countable, uncountable An unincorporated community on Lummi Island, Whatcom County, Washington.

Thesaurus

Closest in meaning: aground, strand, shore, shoreline, foreshore, waterfront, seaside, coastline, coast, seashore, coastal, marine, shoal, sea, playa, sand

verb

Similar: strand

Translations

Every language

noun sandy shore

Españolplaya, playero
한국어바닷가 badatga, 해변 haebyeon
日本語浜 hama, ビーチ bīchi, 海岸 kaigan
中文海灘 /海滩 hǎitān, 沙灘 /沙滩 shātān, 灘 /滩
हिन्दीसमुद्रतट samudrataṭ, सागरतट sāgartaṭ, तट taṭ, किनारा kinārā, किनार kinār, साहिल sāhil
Kiswahilipwani
Portuguêspraia
Françaisplage
DeutschStrand
Italianospiaggia
Ελληνικάαμμουδιά ammoudiá, παραλία paralía, ακρογιαλιά akrogialiá
Românăplajă
Русскийпляж pljaž, взмо́рье vzmórʹje
Tiếng Việtbãi biển
العربيةشَاطِئ šāṭiʔ, سَاحِل sāḥil
עבריתחוֹף khof

verb to run something aground on a beach

Españolencallar, varar, embarrancar
日本語浜に引き上げる hama ni hikiageru, 浜に乗り上げる hama ni noriageru
Portuguêsabicar, encalhar
Françaiséchouer
Deutschstranden
Italianospiaggiare
עבריתהֶעֱלָה לַחוֹף he'ela lakhof, הֶעֱלָה עַל הָחוֹף he'ela al hakhof, הֶחַף hekhaf

verb of a vehicle: to run into an obstacle so that the floor of the vehicle rests on the ground

Русскийсадиться saditʹsja

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Cite this
MLA

"beach." Wiktionary, via Micwyn, micwyn.com/word/beach. Accessed 6 Nov. 2026.

APA

beach. (n.d.). In Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Retrieved November 6, 2026, from https://micwyn.com/word/beach

Chicago

"beach." Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Accessed November 6, 2026. https://micwyn.com/word/beach.

BibTeX
@misc{beach_2026,
  title = {beach},
  howpublished = {Wiktionary, via Micwyn},
  year = {2026},
  url = {https://micwyn.com/word/beach},
  urldate = {2026-11-06}
}