Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • adjective Of, on, or relating to the banks of a natural course of water.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • Pertaining to or situated on the bank of a river.
  • In anatomy, of or pertaining to a ripa of the brain; marginal, as a part of the brain.
  • noun One who dwells or owns property on the banks of a river.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • adjective Of or pertaining to the bank of a river.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • adjective Of or relating to the bank of a river or stream.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • adjective of or relating to or located on the banks of a river or stream

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[From Latin rīpārius, from rīpa, bank.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Latin rīpārius ("relating to a riverbank") +‎ -an.

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Examples

  • Since the lake was made by flooding old farmland, the owners retained the rights to those lands, and also to the middle of the river, its known as riparian rights.

    unknown title 2009

  • This land, often called a riparian buffer, can play a vital role in preventing nutrients that wash off fields and streets from reaching the rivers and coasts.

    Hypoxia fact sheet 2009

  • Yesterday's term was riparian, which is defined as:

    Define That Term #66 2006

  • Yesterday's term was riparian, which is defined as:

    Sui Generis--a New York law blog: 2006

  • Realising the importance of water to ensure productivity of the land, the colonial powers instituted the Water law in 1936, which gave Water rights to land owners - what was known as the riparian rights.

    WOMEN CELEBRATING A DECADE OF FREEDOM ON THE PATH TO TOTAL EMANCIPATION: WOMEN, LAND AND WATER 2004

  • In the areas adjacent to the river, called the riparian zone, vegetation suffers because of infestation by alien plants.

    ANC Daily News Briefing 2001

  • Almost 75 percent of the watershed can be classified as riparian

    Cincinnati.Com - All Local News 2010

  • The first way is called the riparian zone, which is the

    High Plains Journal 2009

  • Survey groundwater geochemist Don Whittemore and geohydrologist Jim Butler, working with researchers from the University of Iowa and University of Colorado, will look for fluctuations in the river's stream flow and in soil moisture and groundwater levels in the area abutting the river known as the riparian zone.

    Kansas City infoZine Headlines 2008

  • The ecosystem approach can provide a framework for developing practices, such as riparian buffer systems, to both support biodiversity conservation, and assist in water management and purification.

    Global Environment Outlook (GEO-4)~ Chapter 5 2008

Comments

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  • I just heard the word "riparian" for the first time ever today used twice in an NPR story on the California levees and wondered what the heck it meant. Now I know.

    I love coming across new words, scribbling them down during my commute and then looking them up later. Words are like jewels to me, each one as precious as the one before, and no two ever exactly the same, like snowflakes. Plus, words are the one thing you can never take away from me, not through poverty or old age or anything. Even if we couldn't speak or see, they'd stay richly, deeply rooted in our minds, echoing throughout between synapses, in the fertile soil that can never amass too many of them in its vastness.

    Sometimes, just for kicks, when I'm riding the train home from work, I take a blank paper journal page and write one word at the top. Then, I will write until I run out of ideas -- writing one word or phrase after another, which the initial word helps to spark inside my mind. In this way, I go on a kind of psychedelic word "trip," and, before I know it, I'm at my stop, which is a 40-minute ride to the end of the rail line and I'm feeling energized and full of new wonder.

    August 30, 2007

  • Wonderful! Happy collecting. :o)

    August 30, 2007

  • Indeed! :-)

    August 30, 2007

  • I wrote a rather embarassing paper in college where I confused the generic term "riparian" with the name of a local river, the Rapidan.

    August 31, 2007

  • Well, they ought to have just renamed the river then, don't you think?

    August 31, 2007

  • Pertaining to the bank or banks of a river.

    May 17, 2008