Sound (Geographic Feature)

A substantial inlet or passage of water whose exact geographic form varies by regional usage.

A sound may be a broad channel between land masses, a coastal inlet, or water separating an island from a mainland. Unlike strait, bay or fjord, the name does not impose one universal combination of width, origin or connection between two larger bodies of water.

Navigation conditions can include constricted tidal streams, shoals, traffic and rapid weather changes, but these arise from the particular geography rather than from the word itself. Charts and local publications define the named sound and its hazards.