Dock (maritime)
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A dock is an area of water often between two piers or alongside a pier, forming a chamber used for building or repairing ships. Docks are also often used for the loading and unloading of commercial ships and ferries. A dockyard consists of one or more docks, usually with other structures. Dry docks can be emptied of water, so all parts of the ship can be investigated, cleaned, maintained and repaired.
In American English dock is technically synonymous with pier or wharf--any human-made structure in the water intended for people to be on. However, in modern use, pier is generally used to refer to structures originally intended for industrial use, such as seafood processing or shipping, and more recently for cruise ships, and dock is used for most everything else, often with a qualifier, such as ferry dock, swimming dock, etc. In AE, the term for the water area between piers is slip.