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detritus

UK/dɪˈtɹaɪ.təs/US/dɪˈtɹaɪ.təs/
nounC1Rare in speech; mostly a word you read · #13,213 of 15,258leans written

Detritus is loose debris left behind after something breaks up. The detritus of the storm.

In geology it is broken rock and in ecology it is dead material that feeds everything else. The Latin behind it is rubbing away, which is exactly how it forms.

Rickjpelleg · CC BY-SA 4.0

Definitions of detritus

  1. 1noundetritusLoose debris left behind after something breaks up.C1

    “The detritus of the festival took three days to clear.”

detritus is debris.

Where it comes from

Latin detritus means something rubbed away, from deterere, to wear down.

  1. Latin

    dētrītus — (that which is) rubbed away

  2. English, today

    detritus

Built from

  • dēterō · Latin — rub away

Latin dētrītus (“(that which is) rubbed away”), from dēterō (“rub away”).

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practise this word

detritus in the wild

  • A fragment of detritus is called a clast.

    Detritus (geology)

  • As of 2016 the building had been demolished and the property left covered in detritus.

    Augspurger Schoolhouse

  • Among aquarists and vendors, the clean-up crew is various small animals commonly sold to keep reef aquariums clear of pest algae, detritus and parasites.

    Clean-up crew

  • Members of Leptestheriidae are believed to graze on detritus.

    Leptestheriidae

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.

Related words

the dēterō family

detrimentaldetritus

detritus — used about once every 20,553 pages · #13,213 · point at the bar for the others