A
shore or a
shoreline is the fringe of land at the edge of a large
body of water, such as an
ocean,
sea, or
lake. In
physical oceanography, a shore is the wider fringe that is geologically modified by the action of the body of water past and present, while the
beach is at the edge of the shore, representing the
intertidal zone where there is one. In contrast to a
coast, a shore can border any body of water, while the coast must border an
ocean; that is, a coast is a type of shore. The word shore is often substituted for coast where an oceanic shore is meant.