Skip to main content
Glite Dictionary
Columbia River

Columbia River

3 3.3
A large North American river that starts in Canada, flows along Washington and Oregon, and reaches the Pacific Ocean
  • proper noun
  • /kəˈlʌmbiə ˈrɪvər/
translation icon : río Columbia
  • In mid-October, I cross the Columbia River and head south into the desert.
  • Columbia River Basin
  • Columbia River Valley
  • Columbia River in Oregon

Examples

  • The highest counts of harbor seals in the Columbia River frequently coincide with winter spawning of eulachon (Bargmann, 1998).

    Academic text (2000)

  • The plan also describes the centuries of sustainable salmon harvest developed by the four tribes of the Columbia River Basin.

    Academic text (2007)

  • We're on the Columbia River on a gorgeous afternoon.

    Fiction book (1994)

  • The red perimeter is within one mile of the Columbia River.

    Fiction book (1995)

  • The nearest supply would be at the Hanford Works on the Columbia River.

    Fiend Without a Face (1958)

  • At the regional level, the CTUIR is one of four tribes with reserved rights to Columbia River salmon harvest.

    Academic text (2007)

  • The Columbia River salmon fishery is not the same as the fishery in Alaska.

    Academic text (1997)

  • Sgt. Pete Simpson said the accident on Hayden Island in the Columbia River appeared to be weather-related.

    Blog text (7)

  • A mid-1950s archaeological dig by a group from the University of Oregon turned up salmon bones along the Columbia River in northwestern Oregon.

    Academic text (2011)

  • The Columbia River flows south through Washington before emptying into the Pacific Ocean.

Synonyms

Columbia
vsColumbia River
64 3.9

A large river flowing from Canada through Washington and along the Oregon border to the Pacific Ocean

notes the river's famous salmon runs as a distinguishing natural feature

Surface Forms

Columbia River main

Morphology

Columbia + river

The phrase is compositional: it combines the proper name 'Columbia' with the noun 'river', so a learner who knows 'river' will understand this denotes a river named Columbia. The 'X River' naming pattern is cross-linguistically common, so even without geographic knowledge a B1 learner can infer the basic meaning.

Etymology

Columbia River comes from a ship called Columbia that sailed into the river in 1792. The ship was named for the poetic name 'Columbia' for the Americas, so the river kept that name.