Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- adj. Of, relating to, or found in alluvium: alluvial soil; alluvial gold.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- Of, pertaining to, or composed of alluvium: as, alluvial deposits; alluvial soil.
- A term applied to the most recent or postglacial deposits, which follow the diluvial deposits.
- n. Alluvial soil; specifically, in Australia and New Zealand, gold-bearing alluvial soil.
Wiktionary
- adj. Pertaining to the soil deposited by a stream.
- n. A deposition of sediment over a long period of time by a river; an alluvial layer.
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. Alluvial soil; specif., in Australia, gold-bearing alluvial soil.
- adj. Pertaining to, contained in, or composed of, alluvium; relating to the deposits made by flowing water; washed away from one place and deposited in another.
WordNet 3.0
- adj. of or relating to alluvium
Etymologies
- From Latin alluvius ("alluvial"), from alluviō ("an overflowing, inundation"), from alluō ("wash against"). (Wiktionary)
Examples
“Diamonds occur in alluvial lands mostly open and comparatively level, as in India, the Brazil and the Cape.”
“Estimates of "prehistoric" and early historic diamond production suggest that 50 to 100,000 carats per year were found, mostly in alluvial deposits in river gravels.”
“Sapphires are found in alluvial soil near rocks and embedded in gneiss.”
“Aquifers occurring in Namibia are classified as alluvial, Kalahari, fracture, Karst or artesian aquifers.”
“Underwater abyssal fans can be compared to terrestrial landforms known as alluvial fans.”
“Like the latter, the Brazilian fields were alluvial, that is, the materials were deposited by river action after having been carried to some distance from their original sources.”
A Text-Book of Precious Stones for Jewelers and the Gem-Loving Public
“In the great laboratory of Nature similar chemical depositions have taken place in the past, and may still be in progress; indeed, there is sound scientific reason to suppose that in certain localities this is even now the case, and that in this way much of our so-called alluvial gold has been formed, that is, by the deposition on metallic bases of the gold held in solution.”
Getting Gold: a practical treatise for prospectors, miners and students
“The Greeks called the alluvial deposit at the mouth of the Nile, from its shape, the Delta of the Nile.”
“The only other chance for agriculture on the river, except Wonsits Valley, Brown's Park, and a few minor places, is below Black Canyon, in the stretches I have called the alluvial and the canyon-valley divisions.”
“The whole land is alluvial, that is, formed, gradually, through thousands of years, of the rich mud deposited by the two rivers, as they spread into vast marshy flats towards the end of their course.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘alluvial’.
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GRE Barrons Wordlist
A complete Barron's Wordlist for GRE preparation. Your online flashcard replacement.
abase, abash, abate, abbreviate, abdicate, aberrant, aberration, abet, abeyance, abhor, abject, abjure and 4087 more...
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dameaning's list
negotiable
hegemony
stalagmite
wont
rasp
riddle
somnambulist
librocubicularisttertiary, constancy, acumen, tinder, confluence, insular, partiality, terse, vanguard, avant guard, irrascible, inverse and 27 more...
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Just 'cause I like 'em, A
abaculus, abacus, abaft, abarticular, abbreviate, abeyance, abiding, anthocyanin, antemeridian, arcane, adjure, adduce and 418 more...
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juv3nal's Words
ligature, hermeneutic, caduceus, prelapsarian, apophenia, pataphor, lipogram, epinephrine, ludic, samizdat, oulipo, oulipopo and 194 more...
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ShuckFinn's Words
abecedarian, conflate, mondegreen, whit, truculent, downright, pugnacious, effluvium, canker, inveigle, obfuscate, melancholy and 227 more...
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kalidas's Words
crepuscular, mellifluous, ephemeral, diaphanous, zeitgeist, geisterfahrer, infinite, eternal, idyllic, azure, reminiscent, oblivion and 521 more...
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slumry's Words
cattywampus, ingratiate, lackadaisical, exactitude, exfoliate, fulminate, circumnavigation, circuitous, debride, sidle, sequester, chicory and 1002 more...
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How very mikeropological..
Basically it's just mikeropology's words, but with his username turned into an adjectivally splendid list name.
mikeropology, squoze, anthropromorphism, mullu, spondylus, goobers, hipster, burnt umber, ochre, canvas, lapizure, burnt sienna and 172 more...
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SAT PSAT ALPHABETICAL A
abandon, abash, abate, abjure, ablution, abnegate, abominable, aboriginal, abortive, abrade, abridge, abrogate and 172 more...
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jagosaurus's favorites
Words I like mostly because of the way they sound and feel.
ticonderoga, petulance, snark, estimable, chickahominy, feline, gezellig, gneiss, shit, willy-nilly, shelter, coda and 366 more...
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azd's Words
adamantine, abatial, ablate, ablative, abrogate, accretive, acromegaly, acrostic, actinism, actinic, acuity, adduce and 968 more...
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Aequoria's list
affect, deleterious, nuance, pliant, verbatim, pertinent, latter, municipality, provincial, voyeuristic, circumlocution, wane and 798 more...
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Ny New Words
From Barron Wordlist the New Words
lap, lank, languor, languish, lancet, lance, lampoon, larceny, larder, largess, lascivious, latitude and 120 more...
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litigious semantics
ad unguem, abeyance, choleric, contentious, curmudgeonly, churlish, dictatorial, vindictive, dogmatic, truculent, mutinous, refractory and 254 more...
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my words
interminable, effete, convocation, philistines, malaise, foibles, deputation, anathematized, morass, stalwart, proselytize, abet and 405 more...
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the omnibus
preponderance, idioglossia, acumen, heteronym, flux, anacoluthon, metonymy, impetus, constellation, exegesis, revelatory, cloistered and 877 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for alluvial.
Prolagus
("The Owl And The Tanager", by Sufjan Stevens) Mar 7, 2011
ronocdh Should include explicit mention of meaning as "stratified" (picture layers of sediment). I find this usage more denotative than connotative these days. Mar 19, 2009