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subsidence

UK/ˈsʌbsɪdəns/US/ˈsʌbsɪdəns/
nounC1Very rare — outside the 30,000 commonest English words, so you will meet it in writing rather than in speech — subside sits at #11,378mostly written

Subsidence is the sinking of ground into a hollow beneath it. Damage from subsidence.

Clay soils shrink in a dry summer, which is what causes most of it in Britain. Trees near a wall are blamed for subsidence more often than they deserve.

NASA · Public domain

Definitions of subsidence

  1. 1nounsubsidenceThe sinking of ground into a hollow beneath it.C1

    “The old mine tunnels caused subsidence, and several houses in the village began to lean.”

subsidence is a sinking.

Where it comes from

Latin subsidere means to settle down, from sub plus sidere, to sit.

  1. Latin

    subsidens

  2. English, today

    subsidence

Latin subsidens, subsidentis, present participle of subsidere. Equivalent to subside + ence.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practised in Rocks & Minerals

Practise this word

subsidence in the wild

  • Two different, well-cited models, the subsidence model and the antecedent karst model, have been used to explain the development of atolls.

    Atoll

  • According to Charles Darwin's subsidence model, the formation of an atoll is explained by the sinking of a volcanic island around which a coral fringing reef has formed.

    Atoll

  • Subsidence resulting from tectonic deformation of the crust is known as tectonic subsidence and can create accommodation for sediments to accumulate and eventually lithify into sedimentary rock.

    Subsidence

  • Ground subsidence is of global concern to geologists, geotechnical engineers, surveyors, engineers, urban planners, landowners, and the public in general.

    Subsidence

  • Land subsidence has occurred along the aqueduct and has had a steady increase since its relatively stable state post construction of the aqueduct.

    California Aqueduct

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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.

From Project Gutenberg, public domain. These sentences are from real books, shown to illustrate the word at work.

Related words

  • subside