Tributary Tributary

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

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.

Example Usage of Tributary

factboffin: The Amazon River has 1,100 Tributary streams.
Jeff_Lyons: GEO QUIZ CORRECT ANSWER: THE LARGEST Tributary OF THE MISSISSIPPI RIVER, BY VOLUME IS THE OHIO RIVER. CONGRATS TO ALL WINNERS !
Jeff_Lyons: GEO QUIZ: BY WATER VOLUME, WHICH IS THE LARGEST Tributary OF THE THE MISSISSIPPI RIVER ? MISSOURI R., ARKANSAS R., OHIO RIVER
Copyright 2009 WordIQ.com - Privacy Policy  :: Terms of Use  :: Contact Us  :: About Us
This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the this Wikipedia article.