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peat

peat

14 5.0
A brown soil made of partly rotted plants used for fuel and to improve garden soil
  • noun
  • /piːt/
translation icon : turba
  • Peat forms in bogs over thousands of years from the decay of plant material.
  • peat swamp
  • peat soil
  • peat fires

It's so it's got that peat humus and peat Moss and it's so spongy.

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Examples

  • Originally a glacial lake, the fen has filled in with vegetation, notably sphagnum, or peat moss.

    Academic text (2011)
  • Next thing is this little bag of peat disks right here.

  • We'll probably need some peat as well.

  • So it's this whole process of keeping the peat wet that is helping us to ensure that it stores carbon?

  • Water was carrying away the peat moss that had been laid around the base of the tree.

    Fiction book (1999)
  • We brought Irish books with us to read over peat fires in the evenings.

    Fiction book (2002)
  • It means that I deliver peat for fuel from the bog.

  • Until very recently, tropical peat swamp forests were a neglected ecosystem with low conservation priority.

    Academic text (2011)
  • Now gardeners and professional growers rely heavily on peat, like really heavily.

  • Lazy smoke rose from farmsteads along the river, where dutiful peat-eating peasants labored alongside their oxen.

    Fiction book (1996)

Compounds

peat moss
  • Specialized
1 4.5

A soft plant from bogs that helps soil hold water

1 6.3

A wet, spongy area of land made of dead plants used as fuel

How Decomposed

coal
451 1.0
lignite
  • Specialized
1 8.7
peat
14 5.0

Surface Forms

peat singular
peats plural

Etymology

Peat comes from an old German word meaning 'turf', the thick layer of plants that grows in a bog and slowly turns into brown, soil-like material. That's why peat today means the partly rotted plant material people cut from bogs to burn for fuel or add to soil.