Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. The process of eroding or the condition of being eroded: erosion of the beach; progressive erosion of confidence in our legal system; erosion of the value of the dollar abroad.
- n. The group of natural processes, including weathering, dissolution, abrasion, corrosion, and transportation, by which material is worn away from the earth's surface.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. The act or operation of eating or gnawing away.
- n. Hence The act of wearing away by any means. Specifically— In gunnery, the wearing away of the metal around the interior of the vent, around the breech-mechanism, and on the surfaces of the bore and chamber of cannon, due to the action of powder-gas at the high pressures and temperatures reached in firing.
- n. In zoology, the abrasion or wearing away of a surface or margin, as if by gnawing; the state of being erose; the act of eroding.
- n. In geology, the wearing away of rocks by water and other agencies of geological change.
- n. The state of being eaten or worn away; corrosion; canker; ulceration.
Wiktionary
- n. uncountable The result of having been being worn away or eroded, as by a glacier on rock or the sea on a cliff face.
- n. uncountable The changing of a surface by mechanical action, friction, thermal expansion contraction, or impact.
- n. uncountable Destruction by abrasive action of fluids.
- n. mathematics, image processing One of two fundamental operations in morphological image processing from which all other morphological operations are derived.
- n. dentistry Loss of tooth enamel due to non-bacteriogenic chemical processes.
- n. medicine A shallow ulceration or lesion, usually involving skin or epithelial tissue.
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. The act or operation of eroding or eating away.
- n. The state of being eaten away; corrosion; canker.
- n. The wearing away of the earth's surface by any natural process. The chief agent of erosion is running water; minor agents are glaciers, the wind, and waves breaking against the coast.
- n. fig. a gradual reduction or lessening as if by an erosive force.
WordNet 3.0
- n. a gradual decline of something
- n. erosion by chemical action
- n. (geology) the mechanical process of wearing or grinding something down (as by particles washing over it)
- n. condition in which the earth's surface is worn away by the action of water and wind
Etymologies
- From Latin erosio ("eating away"), derived from erodere, possibly via erosionem and Middle French erosion. (Wiktionary)
- Latin ērōsiō, ērōsiōn-, an eating away, from ērōsus, eaten away; see erose. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“Under the term erosion I include the action of water, of ice, and of the atmosphere, including frost and rain.”
“Both of these trends make sense but I think Lovell makes a more interesting observation when he talks about what he describes as the erosion of the hardcore.”
The Guardian: Indie games retailers struggling - hardcore gamer decline to blame?
“Later, explaining his opinion to a reporter, Sununu cited a $250 million state budget deficit; what he called the erosion of family values in the last legislative session; and Lynch's failure to persuade lawmakers from his own party to vote for his constitutional amendment on education.”
“This erosion is most definitely due to modern communication.”
“MPs on the committee called for the World Service budget to be protected to "prevent any risk of long-term erosion of the World Service's funding and of parliament's right to oversee its work".”
The Guardian: BBC World Service cuts must be reversed, say MPs
“It looks like investors populating NLY options are bracing for near-term erosion in the price of the REITs shares through August expiration.”
“The financial erosion from the credit crunch also has affected Europe.”
“Still, it's worth considering whether something other than normal erosion is affecting American Idol (Fox, tonight, 8 ET/PT).”
“These wore rapidly, and such erosion is often evident on the actual coins.”
“The report examined many facets of the future strategic environment, but its most startling, and news-making, finding concerned the projected long-term erosion of American dominance and the emergence of new global competitors.”
Michael T. Klare: Welcome to 2025: American Preeminence Is Disappearing Fifteen Years Early
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘erosion’.
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EN - academic vocabulary
Use these and get promoted
abandon, abandonment, abnormally, abstract, abstraction, abstractly, abstracts, academia, academic, academically, academics, academies and 3119 more...
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Specifically
Being a list of words which have "specifically" in their definitions.
recompose, specifically, Dutch, abstinence, discipline, virtue, namely, opening, century, amalgamation, cup, second and 303 more...
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EU Buzz - single words (1+2+3)
1. Strictly EU terms with special European meaning used only in the EU
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2. Keywords central to the understanding of the EU (people working for the EU are usually able to give thematic...acceleration, action, additionality, administrator, agenda, agricultural, agri-environmental, agriflation, agri-food, applicant, approach, assent and 1325 more...
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Hence
Words with definitions that have a "hence" in them.
hanger, Deet, tripe, spindlelegs, fiddle, store, pluck, snap, villain, link, comedy, particular and 410 more...
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Earth-Friendly Organic Produce
An Ecosystem of earth/life-related words.
blueskycloudform, sojourn, reuse, reduce, compostable, habitat, ecology, bionomics, Eco-Art, sustainability, forest garden, biosystems and 47 more...
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Favorites
disparage, partisan, cupidity, hokum, tussle, odious, dastardly, overture, plane, chronic, peering, peer and 328 more...
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ESL Academic Word List
This is a list of academic words for students learning English as a Second or Foreign Language. It includes 570 word families that often appear in academic texts. It does not include words that are...
collapse, depression, colleagues, invoked, levy, nonetheless, likewise, so-called, ongoing, conceived, forthcoming, integrity and 558 more...
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Saaima's list
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Misc. Words.
Words I like to use, words I like but may forget.
corrosion, astonish, solace, ferment, continuum, kinesthetic, permeate, repose, caprice, cardinal, discourse, surrender and 610 more...
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Mimi
sober, rhetoric, oratory, ergo, venom, diaphragm, Medieval, piety, incognito, ruse, calamity, evidence and 251 more...
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ecology
symbiosis, primary, secondary, tertiary, pioneer, plant, disturbance, vine maple, douglas fir, western red cedar, sword fern, salmonberry and 62 more...
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arynzmuse's Words
cacaphony, jealously, aerie, substrate, sedimentology, planetarium, aqueous, sororal, feminine, quidditch, muggle, uniformitarianism and 53 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for erosion.
Prolagus ...accretion? Mar 31, 2009
senwick What is the opposite of this word? Mar 31, 2009