Wrack

Wrack is a term with several related meanings in English, spanning nautical, botanical, and coastal contexts. In historical and literary usage, wrack refers to the wreckage or debris left by a ship after it has sunk or broken apart. It is closely related to the modern word wreck, and in older texts the forms can be interchangeable. The phrase wrack and ruin is a common idiom indicating total destruction or dilapidation.

In marine biology and coastal ecology, wrack denotes certain types of brown seaweed that grow on rocky shores. Bladderwrack (Fucus vesiculosus) is one of the species most often called wrack, along with other seaweeds commonly grouped under this name. The term can refer to the seaweed itself or to the detrital layer formed when seaweed is washed ashore. The wrack line is the boundary along the beach where seaweed and other debris accumulate at the high-tide mark, providing habitat for invertebrates and serving as an indicator of tidal action.

As a verb, wrack can mean to ruin or cause suffering, but its use is largely archaic or literary; contemporary English tends to use wreck for this sense.

Wrack appears across disciplines and regional usages, but it is most commonly encountered in coastal descriptions, historical texts, and fixed phrases such as wrack and ruin or shipwreck narratives.