Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. An almost horizontal entrance to a mine.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. An entrance or a passage; specifically, in mining, a nearly horizontal excavation, or drift (which see), specially used to conduct from the interior to the surface the water which either comes into the workings from above or is pumped up from below. The word tunnel is in general use in the United States, and especially in the western mining regions, for adit; but the former properly signifies an excavation open at both ends, such as is used in railroads. When there are two or more adits, the lowest is called the deep adit. Adits are occasionally several miles in length. The so-called Sutro tunnel, draining the Comstock lode at Virginia City, Nevada, is the most extensive work of this kind yet constructed in the United States. It is about 20,000 feet in length, and intersects the lode at a depth of about 2000 feet. Also called
adit-level . See cut underlevel . - n. Milit., a passage under ground by which miners approach the part they intend to sap. Wilhelm, Mil. Diet. Admission; access; approach.
Wiktionary
- n. A horizontal or nearly horizontal passage from the surface into a mine as contrasted to a shaft which is a vertical entry passage. An adit may be used for ventilation, haulage, drainage, or other purposes.
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. An entrance or passage. Specifically: The nearly horizontal opening by which a mine is entered, or by which water and ores are carried away; -- called also
drift andtunnel . - n. rare Admission; approach; access.
WordNet 3.0
- n. a nearly horizontal passage from the surface into a mine
Etymologies
- From Latin aditus ‘entrance, access’, from ad + itus. (Wiktionary)
- Latin aditus, access, from past participle of adīre, to approach : ad-, ad- + īre, to go. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“The "adit" -- or water-conducting -- level by which the spot was reached commenced at the cliffs, on a level with the seashore, and ran into the interior until it reached the old mine, about”
“He said: 'It is believed that she was climbing around an adit, which is an entrance to a mine.”
“GRC geologists mapped the adit, which is 40 meters in length and took channel samples, each approximately one meter or more in width across the vein and at two meter intervals along the strike of the vein.”
“Mine entrance: The 'adit' at Droskyn Point in Perranporth, Cornwall.”
“The trailing primer wires were braided together and connected to a cable running out to an electrician safely sheltered in an adit, detonator at the ready.”
“We’re standing beneath the adit of our long-desolate cave, proffering a sheaf of papers that you might consider a manuscript.”
“May 15, 2008 at 9:44 am ai dunt rilly want to luk adit!”
C’mon..I swearz… - Lolcats 'n' Funny Pictures of Cats - I Can Has Cheezburger?
“Dis cite sur am bery edumacashunal in adit… addti… an teh funneh too!”
Tiger Woods - Lolcats 'n' Funny Pictures of Cats - I Can Has Cheezburger?
“Si quae controversiae utraque para judicem adit, is semel et simul rem transigit, audit: nec quid sit appellatio, lachrymosaeque morae noscunt.”
“Ille impiger regem adit, abatissam et suas praegnantes edocet, exploratoribus missis probat, et iis ejectis, a domino suo manerium accepit.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘adit’.
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Coal Mining Terms
Coal mining has engendered fascinating subcultures in industry, labor, music, folklore, environment and energy. It has a rich vocabulary as well, and I've encountered some gorgeous mining words. I...
firedamp, scrip, bituminous, anthracite, company store, blackdamp, brattice, bug dust, tipple, whitedamp, float dust, fly ash and 136 more...
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Rare Words - A
Not just rare words, but thousands of RARE WORDS WITH DEFINITIONS.
If you want to see the definitions, too, go to
http://phrontistery.i...aba, abacinate, abactor, abaculus, abaft, abampere, abapical, abarticular, abasement, abasia, abask, abatis and 1214 more...
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wallace
Remington, Windsor, prorector, wen, aver, mottle, seltzer, tepee, lapidary, effete, sotto, presbyopia and 355 more...
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Logolepsy
"Luciferous Logolepsy is a collection of over 9,000 obscure English words. Though the definition of an 'English' word might seem to be straightforward, it is not. There exist so many adopted, deriv...
Anschauung, Areopagus, Argus, Briarean, Dei gratia, Dei judicium, Deo volente, Duecento, Foehn, Geflugelte Worte, Gegenschein, Hakenkreuz and 9230 more...
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phrontistery - a
from phrontistery.info
axilla, avalement, argil, argent, argand, arete, aretaics, areometer, areology, arenoid, arenaceous, arefy and 1214 more...
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Thresholds
we are all just passing through.
(boundaries, portals and liminal spaces/times)cockcrow, interface, thin line, portal, postern, littoral, interstice, port, membrane, skin, crepuscule, dawn and 304 more...
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liminal words
transformational, entryway words: thresh(hold), fresh relief
liminal, sill, threshold, aletheia, inscape, adit, introit, maze, pore, porism, portal, port and 114 more...
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ADW1
obdurate, obstinate, behest, injunction, enjoin, circumspect, ensconce, discursive, lugubrious, doleful, somber, ken and 2476 more...
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What David Foster Wallace circled in ...
ablative, ablaut, abulia, acephalous, ACTH, adit, adumbrate, agrapha, ailanthus, aleatory, alfresco, algolagnia and 474 more...
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learning
A list of words whose meanings I am learning, either because a) I don't know the meaning b) I know the meaning, but could stand to better appreciate certain inflections or secondary meanings or c) ...
louche, educe, loam, cob, sclerotic, palliate, axial, syndicalist, ecumenical, sally, fatuous, parvenu and 1381 more...
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What David Foster Wallace Circled in ...
http://www.slate.com/id/2250784/
ablative absolute, ablaut, abulia, acephalous, ACTH, adit, adumbrate, agrapha, aleatory, ailanthus, alfresco, algolagnia and 482 more...
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Lay of the Land
all kinds of scapes
steppe, veld, veldt, campo, llano, taiga, krummholz, elfinwood, tundra, sward, lea, heath and 197 more...
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rememberers
prolix, ageusia, animadversion, anodyne, antic, arabesque, beadle, brachymetropia, colophon, desquamation, diaphoresis, diegesis and 3248 more...
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Geology Words
The descriptive science described.
earth, lithosphere, mineral, convection, heat flow, ore, deep time, fossil, formation, rock, tectonics, extinction and 281 more...
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Permutations
There are 17576 different sequences of three letters (26 x 26 x 26). How many of them occur in words? General rules of engagement: mononyms only, lower case preferred to upper case, short preferred...
aaargh, niqaabi, Isaac, raad, baaed, haaf, laager, aah, kamaaina, Naajaat, aak, aalii and 637 more...
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A few of my favorite definitions from...
I'm especially fond of ones written by Charles Sanders Peirce.
theodolite, illusion, buckie, frank, abstract-concrete, semidiagrammatic, object-object, vortex-filament, dod, parrock, cobler, weather-box and 354 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for adit.

Casey "To the north were the mines themselves: dangerous, undershored scratch drifts that went down fifty feet or so and then spread like fingers clutching for gold and silver and copper and the occasional nest of firedims. From the outside they were just holes punched into the bare and rocky earth, holes like staring eyes, each with its own pile of till and scrapings beside the adit." From Wizard and Glass by Stephen King Jan 28, 2011