landfall
landfall Lexical Profile
landfall Game Scores & Validity
• noun
The event of a hurricane, typhoon, or tropical storm moving across a coastline from the sea onto land.
"Meteorologists predicted that the hurricane would make landfall along the southern coast just before midnight."
An arrival at land after a journey by sea or air, or the first sighting of land from a ship or aircraft.
"After three weeks of sailing across the Atlantic, the crew celebrated when they finally made landfall on the island."
The specific strip of coast or terrestrial landmass first sighted or reached at the end of a sea or air voyage.
"The rocky cape served as a familiar landfall for nineteenth-century whaling vessels returning to port."
Word Origin & Etymology
First recorded in the early 17th century as a nautical compound of "land" and "fall," originally referring to how a coastline seems to "fall" into a sailor's line of sight after a voyage across open water.