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Glite Dictionary
🌊 A smaller river 💰 Paying tribute 🌊 Flowing into river
tributary

tributary

11 4.6
A smaller river that flows into a larger river or lake
  • noun
  • /ˈtrɪb.jə.ter.i/
: afluente
  • Major river systems may contain several large tributaries, each with numerous streams fed by smaller creeks, etc.
  • tributary rivers
  • tributary streams
  • main tributary

They call them first lakes, blood lakes, before they form tributaries, before they form streams.

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Examples

  • Later, trade routes along the river and its tributaries brought other indigenous groups, such as the Apache and Ute.

    Academic text (2008)

  • For example, the James River is a tributary of the Chesapeake Bay.

    Academic text (2011)

  • At that point, the Yarmuk River, its largest tributary, joins the Jordan.

    Academic text (2008)

  • Iquitos, its capital, spreads itself beside a tributary of the great river.

    Fiction book (1991)

  • The White Nile and Blue Nile are two of its main tributaries.

    Academic text (2008)

  • The participants glided up tributaries and into oxbow lakes in search of that definitive shot.

    Academic text (2008)

  • The Missouri River is a major tributary that flows into the Mississippi River.

  • Many small streams serve as tributaries to the larger rivers in the region.

  • The Amazon is fed by thousands of tributaries, making it one of the largest river systems in the world.

Synonyms

creek
vstributary
  • US
240 1.4

A small natural stream of water that often flows into a river

is defined by always flowing into a larger river or lake
stream
vstributary
186 1.0

A small, narrow flow of water on the ground

is specific to watercourses that flow into larger river or lake
brook
vstributary
22 1.0

A small stream of water that flows in fields or woods

is always defined by joining a larger river or lake
feeder
vstributary
4 4.9

A small stream that flows into a larger river

is used for any size watercourse that flows into larger water
branch
vstributary
4 3.7

A smaller river or stream that flows into a larger one

is the standard term for a watercourse joining larger water
affluent
vstributary
  • Archaic
1 9.9

A stream that flows into a larger river

is the modern general word for such a watercourse
substream
vstributary
  • Specialized
1 6.2

A smaller flow of data that is part of a larger stream

is restricted to natural water joining a larger river or lake
confluent
vstributary
8.4

A stream that flows into a larger river

is the general word for any watercourse joining a larger river or lake

Antonyms

distributary
  • Specialized
1 8.6

A smaller river channel in a delta that flows away from the main river and does not rejoin it

How Big

river
∞ 1.0
tributary
11 4.6
stream
186 1.0
brook
22 1.0
rivulet
5 7.7

Surface Forms

tributary singular
tributaries plural

Morphology

tributary = tributary (opaque) = tribute + ary

The noun is a zero-derived use of the adjective 'tributary', but the river sense is a historical metaphor that is not readily recoverable from the base meaning.

Etymology

Tributary takes its name from the root tribute, which means 'to give'. A tributary is a smaller river that 'gives' its water to a larger one, so the name shows its role as a feeder to the main river.