SHOALS Synonyms: 12 Similar and Opposite Words

shoals

noun

plural of shoal

as in banks

a place where a body of water (as a sea or river) is shallow the shoals off Nantucket Island are famous as the final resting places of many ill-fated ships

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Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

Recent Examples of shoals The offerings of any decent oyster shucker will change according to the seasons and the tides and the shoals and the shipping lines and the harbor freight and the rush-hour traffic on the interstate. — Helen Rosner, New Yorker, 23 Aug. 2026 Volunteers and staff with the nonprofit foundation removed alligatorweed from the shoals manually but are working on grant proposals to remove more. — John Marks, Charlotte Observer, 31 July 2026 The assumption is that Lohar will either abandon pursuit or accidentally run the Bitchfist aground on the toothy shoals. — Amanda Whiting, Vulture, 22 June 2026 China claims almost all of the sea, including areas that overlap with exclusive economic zones from countries like the Philippines, Vietnam and Malaysia, and has been building out structures on some shoals in recent years to bolster its claims. — Joanna Ossinger, CNBC, 30 May 2026 Rose Island Lighthouse stands on a rocky heap of land in Narragansett Bay, guiding ships away from the shallow shoals of Newport Harbor. — Madeline Bilis, Travel + Leisure, 3 May 2026 As a result, the wide, shallow bay, with its lacework of shoals and basins, grows hot and hypersaline, killing seagrass, fueling algae blooms and hurting the economy of the Keys. — Bill Kearney, Sun Sentinel, 29 Apr. 2026 The island is surrounded by reefs and shoals, and is home to several historical sites, parks and viewpoints. — Kerry Breen, CBS News, 3 Apr. 2026 As the southern Gulf Stream clashes with the northern Labrador Current, the rough waters steer sailors toward shallow shoals and ultimate disaster. — Brian Higgins, Outside, 2 Mar. 2026

Recent Examples of Synonyms for shoals

Noun

Many of these villages sat dozens of metres above the banks of the Trishuli River, which ran through Poudel’s native Nuwakot District.

— Ishaan Tharoor, New Yorker, 29 Aug. 2026
Put simply, when banks sneeze, the rest of the financial system catches pneumonia.

— Mayra Rodriguez Valladares, Forbes.com, 29 Aug. 2026

Definition of banks

Noun

Some rolled and splashed in the shallows, regulating their body temperature after lying in the Arctic sun, others lay motionless, deep in sleep.

— Sarah Kingdom, Forbes.com, 30 Aug. 2026
Take things up a notch and reserve in advance for Dinner on the Sandbar, a private five-course dinner in the shallows surrounding Little Palm Island.

— Condé Nast, Condé Nast Traveler, 19 Aug. 2026

Definition of shallows

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shoal

shoals

shock

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“Shoals.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/shoals. Accessed 2 Sep. 2026.

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Synonyms of shoals

noun

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