"beachhead" in the noun sense

1. beachhead

a bridgehead on the enemy's shoreline seized by an amphibious operation

"the Germans were desperately trying to contain the Anzio beachhead"

2. beachhead, foothold

an initial accomplishment that opens the way for further developments

"the town became a beachhead in the campaign to ban smoking outdoors"

"they are presently attempting to gain a foothold in the Russian market"

Source: WordNet® (An amazing lexical database of English)

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