But is it more correct to say coral reef or reef? (Antonio P.)
Massimo Boyer responds
Good question. Actually, the term coral reef refers to only one type of coral formation, so it's a bit limiting.
If we consider the possible coral formations, we can have reef (or breakwater) formations, barriers , and atolls . In common parlance, we tend to use the term coral reef for all of them, but if we want to be more precise, we should speak of a madreporic formation , specifying whether it is a reef, barrier, or atoll formation.
Mad-re-po-ri-ca For-ma-tion… 9 syllables. That's a lot even for the title of a book, which is why, personally, I prefer to use the English word reef , which is much shorter and more concise, so much so that it has entered common usage. To be picky, even reef is imprecise, as it refers to a reef; speaking of corals, we should say coral reef.
In short, the important thing is to understand each other, and in my opinion it's better if we can do it concisely.
Massimo is the author of the book Atlas of Flora and Fauna of the Reef.
