estuary in Chinese

[tooironic]

Hi everyone. I've come across the following translations for "estuary" (the tidal mouth of a large river, where the tide meets the stream) in Chinese:

- 河口

- 河口湾

- 三角湾

- 入海口

- 出海口

Could anyone tell me if they are all interchangeable, or if there are some differences between them?

Cheers.

[陳德聰]

I always thought 出海口 was more synonymous with 港口, and 入海口 was where the water actually hits the sea/ocean. I don't think I would use either of these to mean estuary if I were trying to be precise.

I don't think I've seen 三角弯 before, but I know that 三角洲 is a delta.

河口 and 河口弯 both seem okay to me, but I think that the more accepted one is 河口, just a guess since the only information I can easily find on 河口弯 is from Taiwan's Britannica.

Edit: I believe you can say 入海河口 to eliminate the ambiguity between rivers running into lakes, rivers running into other bodies of water, etc. Also see this lovely picture.