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Aug 25, 2016
This week’s theme
There’s an antonym for it

This week’s words
estivate
diurnal
ultimogeniture
distributary
dissensus

Mitchell River delta
Mitchell River delta
Photo: Feral Arts

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A.Word.A.Day
with Anu Garg

distributary

PRONUNCIATION:
(di-STRIB-yuh-ter-ee, -yoo-)

MEANING:
noun: A branch of a river that flows away from the main stream and does not rejoin it, as in a delta.

ETYMOLOGY:
From Latin dis- (away) + tribuere (to give or assign), from tribus (tribe). Earliest documented use: 1541.

USAGE:
“[The Mekong river] cuts Cambodia in two, and then splits into distributaries in south-western Vietnam.”
Requiem for a River; The Economist (London, UK); Feb 13, 2016.

See more usage examples of distributary in Vocabulary.com’s dictionary.

A THOUGHT FOR TODAY:
A certain amount of opposition is a great help to a man. Kites rise against, not with, the wind. -John Neal, author and critic (25 Aug 1793-1876)

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