ria

ria (REE-uh) - n., a coastal inlet formed by the partial submergence of an unglaciated river valley.


Which means that typically a ria has dendritic branches from tributaries that were also submerged, but some are straight. All are deeper at the oceanic outlet than at the head. Borrowed in the late 1890s from Galician (the language/dialect of northwestern Spain) ría, river, from río, river, from Vulgar Latin rius, river, from Latin rīvus, small stream.


Thanks, WikiMedia!

---L.