alluvium

nounC2Very rare — outside the 30,000 commonest English words, so you will meet it in writing rather than in speechToo rare in one of the two pools to compare — fewer than 20 uses in speech or in writing

Other forms: alluvia

Alluvium is soil and gravel left behind by a river. A layer of alluvium.

It is the most fertile ground there is, which is why every early civilisation grew on a floodplain. Alluvium is why a river valley floods and why anybody puts up with it.

Definitions of alluvium

1nounalluviumSoil and gravel left behind by a river.C2
“Two metres of alluvium covered the whole valley floor.”

alluvium is soil.

Where it comes from

Medieval Latin alluvium means matter washed up, from alluere, to wash against.

Latin
alluviō — washing upon, overflowing
Medieval Latin
alluvium — matter deposited by flowing water
English, today
alluvium

Built from

alluvius · Latin — deposited by a river

From Medieval Latin alluvium (“matter deposited by flowing water”), neuter of alluvius (“deposited by a river”), from Latin alluviō (“washing upon, overflowing”). See also al-.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practised in Rocks & Minerals

Practise this word

alluvium in the wild

Sediments deposited underwater, in seas, estuaries, lakes, or ponds, are not described as alluvium.
Alluvium
Floodplain alluvium can be highly fertile, and supported some of the earliest human civilizations.
Alluvium
Most of the alluvium in the lower Mississippi valley is thought to be sourced from the west.
Mississippi Alluvial Plain
In Madagascar, spessartines are exploited either in their bedrock or in alluvium.
Spessartine
Buckland divided the surficial deposits overlying regional bedrock into diluvium and alluvium.
Diluvium

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From Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. These sentences were written by other people about their own subjects; they are here to show the word at work, not as anybody’s opinion.

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