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Tributary - Definition and Overview |
| Related Words: Affluent, Bayou, Beck, Billabong, Branch, Brook, Burn, Client, Collateral, Confluent, Conquered, Creek, Feeder, Feudal, Fork, Kill, Liege, Minor, Offshoot, Prong |
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A tributary (or affluent or confluent) is a contributory stream, a river that does not reach the sea, but joins another major river (a parent river), to which it contributes its waters, swelling its discharge. A tributary joins another river at a confluence. When a river's tributaries are listed in orographic sequence, they are in order from the highest (nearest the source of the river) to the lowest (nearest the mouth).
The opposite of a tributary is a distributary; a river branch that flows away from the main stream.
A river and all its tributaries drain the watershed of the river.
Network analysis examines the arrangement of tributaries in a hierarchy of 1st, 2nd, 3rd etc. orders.
In international relations history, a tributary is a region or people who pay tribute to a more powerful, suzerain state.
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Example Usage of Tributary |
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factboffin: The Amazon River has 1,100 Tributary streams. |
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Jeff_Lyons: GEO QUIZ CORRECT ANSWER: THE LARGEST Tributary OF THE MISSISSIPPI RIVER, BY VOLUME IS THE OHIO RIVER. CONGRATS TO ALL WINNERS ! |
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Jeff_Lyons: GEO QUIZ: BY WATER VOLUME, WHICH IS THE LARGEST Tributary OF THE THE MISSISSIPPI RIVER ? MISSOURI R., ARKANSAS R., OHIO RIVER |
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