On this Wikipedia the language links are at the top of the page across from the article title. This article is about the geographical feature. East River is on the left, just above center. A bay is a recessed, coastal body of water that directly connects bay leaf substitute a larger main body of water, such as an ocean, a lake, or another bay.

A bay can be the estuary of a river, such as the Chesapeake Bay, an estuary of the Susquehanna River. The land surrounding a bay often reduces the strength of winds and blocks waves. Bays may have as wide a variety of shoreline characteristics as other shorelines. In some cases, bays have beaches, which “are usually characterized by a steep upper foreshore with a broad, flat fronting terrace”. The United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea defines a bay as a well-marked indentation in the coastline, whose penetration is in such proportion to the width of its mouth as to contain land-locked waters and constitute more than a mere curvature of the coast. Open bay — a bay that is widest at the mouth, flanked by headlands. Enclosed bay — a bay whose mouth is narrower than its widest part, flanked by at least one peninsula.

Semi-enclosed bay — an open bay whose exit is made into narrower channels by one or more islands within its mouth. There are various ways in which bays can form. The largest bays have developed through plate tectonics. Bays also form through coastal erosion by rivers and glaciers.