Other forms: valleys
A valley is the low land lying between two lines of high ground. A green valley, down the valley, the valley floor.
Rivers cut V-shaped valleys and glaciers cut U-shaped ones, which is how the shape tells you what made it. Valleys hold the settlements, the roads and the farmland, so most of the country's people live in them. Note vale, the poetic word; dale, the northern one; and that valley displaced the native English dene, which survives in place names.
1nounvalleyThe low land between two lines of high ground.
“The village lies in a green valley between two mountains.”
valley is a landform.
Old French valee comes from Latin vallis. Vale is the same word taken shorter, and valley displaced the Old English denu, which survives as dene.
Latin
vallēs
Old French
valee
Anglo-Norman
valey
Middle English
valeye
English, today
valley
From Middle English valeye, valey, from Anglo-Norman valey, Old French valee (compare French vallée), from Latin vallēs/vallis. a doublet of vlei and vly. Displaced native dene, from dene and partially displaced native dale, from dæl.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA