Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- adjective Of, relating to, or found in alluvium.
from The Century Dictionary.
- 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.
- noun Alluvial soil; specifically, in Australia and New Zealand, gold-bearing alluvial soil.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- noun Alluvial soil; specif., in Australia, gold-bearing alluvial soil.
- adjective 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.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- adjective Pertaining to the
soil deposited by astream . - noun A
deposition ofsediment over a long period of time by ariver ; an alluviallayer .
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- adjective of or relating to alluvium
Etymologies
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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Diamonds occur in alluvial lands mostly open and comparatively level, as in India, the Brazil and the Cape.
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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.
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Sapphires are found in alluvial soil near rocks and embedded in gneiss.
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Aquifers occurring in Namibia are classified as alluvial, Kalahari, fracture, Karst or artesian aquifers.
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Underwater abyssal fans can be compared to terrestrial landforms known as alluvial fans.
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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 Frank Bertram Wade
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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
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The Greeks called the alluvial deposit at the mouth of the Nile, from its shape, the Delta of the Nile.
The Science of Fingerprints Classification and Uses United States. Federal Bureau of Investigation 1933
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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 Romance of the Colorado River Frederick Samuel Dellenbaugh 1894
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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.
ronocdh commented on the word alluvial
Should include explicit mention of meaning as "stratified" (picture layers of sediment). I find this usage more denotative than connotative these days.
March 19, 2009
Prolagus commented on the word alluvial
("The Owl And The Tanager", by Sufjan Stevens)
March 8, 2011