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There is little consistency in the use of 'sound' in English-speaking cartography.

Traditionally, in British and northern European usage, the Sound is the Oresund, the strait that separates Denmark (the Danish island of Sjaelland) and Sweden, the narrow channel (2.5 miles or 4 kilometers wide) that connects the Kattegat with the Baltic Sea.

In the United States, Long Island Sound separates Long Island from the coast of Connecticut, but on the Atlantic Ocean side of Long Island, the body of water between it and its barrier beaches is the Great South Bay. Pamlico Sound is a similar lagoon that lies between North Carolina and its barrier beaches, the Outer BanksThe narrow strand of barrier islands known as North Carolina's Outer Banks strings for more than 90 miles along the coast from Virginia's border south through Ocracoke and Portsmouth Islands. Bordered by bodies of brackish water on the west (known as " so, in a similar situation. On the West Coast, Puget SoundPuget Sound is an arm of the Pacific Ocean in the Pacific Northwest of the United States. It was named by George Vancouver for Lieutenant Peter Puget, who explored its southern end in May 1792. Vancouver claimed it for Great Britain on June 4, 1792. It be, by contrast, is a deep arm of the sea.

A Sound is often formed by the sea flooding a river valley. This produces a long inlet where the sloping valley hillsides decend to sea-level and continue beneath the water to form a sloping sea floor. The Marlborough SoundsThe Marlborough Sounds is an extensive network of sea-drowned valleys at the north of the South Island of New Zealand. Geography Covering some 4000 km2 of sounds, islands, and peninsulas, the Marlborough Sounds lie at the South Island's northeasternmost p in New ZealandFor alternative meanings, see New Zealand (disambiguation). New Zealand is a country formed of two major islands and a number of smaller islands in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. A common Mori name for New Zealand is Aotearoa popularly translated as Land are a good example of this type of formation.

Sometimes a Sound is produced by a glacier carving out a valley on the coast then receding, or the sea invading a glacier valley. The glacier produces a sound that often has steep, near vertical, sides that extend deep under water. The sea floor is often flat and deeper at the landward end than the seaward end, due to glacial deposits. This type of sound is more properly termed a fjord (or fiord). The sounds in FiordlandFiordland is situated on the south-western corner of the South Island of New Zealand. Most of it is covered by the Fiordland National Park, which has an area of 12,120 square kilometres, making it the largest national park in New Zealand and one of the la, New Zealand, have been formed this way.