What term describes the large amounts of water that hurricanes can push against the shore?

The term that describes the large amounts of water that hurricanes can push against the shore is "storm surge." This phenomenon occurs when strong winds from a hurricane or tropical storm push water onto land, causing a temporary increase in sea level along the coastline. Storm surges can lead to significant flooding and can be extremely dangerous, especially when they coincide with high tide.

Tidal waves, while often confused with storm surge, refer more accurately to the regular rise and fall of sea levels due to gravitational forces between the Earth, moon, and sun, and not to the sudden and forceful rise of water caused by a storm system. Waterspouts are tornadoes that occur over water and do not directly relate to the inundation of land by large volumes of water, while tsunamis are large sea waves typically caused by underwater earthquakes, rather than atmospheric conditions like hurricanes.