clayey
- adjective
- /ˈkleɪ.i/
- Her entire skin is taupe, like dry, clayey earth, rough as sandpaper.
- clayey soil
Examples
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Hernandez, the cleaning man, wore his clayey, earthen aura.
Fiction book (1991) -
"The soils we have here at two ends of the island are very clayey," he explains.
Academic text (1999) -
Houston soils formed in clayey marine.
Academic text (1998) -
Like the images of the steep, clayey red slope down to the horizon, which the blind man born blind was getting ready to climb.
Fiction book (1993) -
Muttering under his breath, Worf began clawing at the damp, clayey soil.
Fiction book (1992) -
Soils are clayey and sandy yellow latosols (see Lovejoy and Bierregaard 1990 for a more detailed description of the study area and ongoing research projects).
Academic text (1992) -
The garden's soil is very clayey, which is ideal for growing certain types of plants.
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When it rains, the clayey ground becomes muddy and difficult to walk on.
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They discovered that the clayey soil retained water well, benefiting their agricultural efforts.
Synonyms
Having a soft sticky texture like wet clay
A rock or soil that contains a lot of clay
Has the feel of heavy, sticky soil that becomes soft when wet and is used to make pots
How Clayey
Surface Forms
Morphology
Etymology
Clayey comes from the simple word clay plus the ending -ey, which you can think of as meaning 'like' or 'full of' (as in snowy or muddy). So clayey describes soil that is 'full of clay' — heavy, sticky, and good at holding water, which is why clayey ground can be hard to work.