Bay

Bay, small body of water or inlet that is set off from a larger body of water. Bays may occur on oceans, lakes, and gulfs, but usually they are not associated with rivers except when the river mouth has been enlarged by submergence. The mouth of the Hudson River, New York Bay, is an example of a river-mouth bay.

A bay is similar to, but usually considered to be smaller than, a gulf. The Gulf of Mexico, for example, contains numerous bays—Mobile Bay and Tampa Bay among others. Although bays are generally smaller than gulfs, Hudson Bay and the Bay of Biscay are larger than some gulfs. A wide bay formed by a bend or curve in a shoreline is called a bight, such as the Bight of Benin. Sometimes it is assumed that the entrance to a bay must be wider than its interior, but there are many pouch or bottleshaped bays with narrow entrances. A fjord is a narrow bay that extends inland as an inlet from the sea between steep walls of rock.