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Glite Dictionary
bayou

bayou

53 8.2
A slow, wet channel from a river or lake in the southern United States
  • noun
  • /ˈbaɪ.u/
  • US
: brazo de río
  • Everyone in the bayou knew we were once very fond of each other.
  • bayou watershed
  • bayou drainage system
  • bayou and creek

Now, Your honor, I may just be a country lawyer, but back down on the Bayou, we used to call that Colusione.

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Examples

  • Many of their descendants still live in the Louisiana bayou, close to the plantations where they were sent to work.

    Academic text (2017)

  • His body was found in a lonely cottage, near the Louisiana bayou he loved.

    The Pelican Brief (1993)

  • As soon as the news spread throughout the bayou, all the people who knew me would feel terrible.

    Fiction book (1995)

  • Does your family really have land out on the bayou?

    Hit Man (2024)

  • Things go on much the same as before on the bayou of the Louisiana swamp.

    Fiction book (1996)

  • The woman swam to a pier, where she was pulled from the bayou by two fishermen.

    Fiction book (1990)

  • Local historians say the bayou was named for the buffalo gar that regularly navigates its waters.

    Fiction book (1999)

  • The Coushattas have lived in their current location near Bayou Blue, north of Elton, Louisiana, since the late nineteenth century.

    Academic text (2017)

  • Deep within the cool green shadows of the Bayou Teche lived Phillip LaDuc and his young sister, Anabelle.

    Fiction book (1999)

  • The fisherman paddled quietly along the bayou, listening to the sounds of nature all around him.

Synonyms

wetland
vsbayou
53 3.5

An area of land that is always or sometimes wet and has water plants and animals

is a slow marshy water channel off a river or lake
lagoon
vsbayou
48 3.9

A shallow area of water separated from the sea by a sandbank or reef

is a slow marshy offshoot of a river or lake not a separated pool

How Fast

river
∞ 1.0
creek
  • US
240 1.4
bayou
  • US
53 8.2
slough
  • US
4 8.9
stagnation
1 6.5

Surface Forms

bayou singular
bayous plural

Etymology

Bayou comes from a Native American Choctaw word, bayuk, that meant 'small creek' and was later used in Louisiana French. That's why a bayou is a slow, marshy stream or side channel of a river in the southern United States.