|
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 |
 |
q_bee: Christian bookmarked With Open Graph, Facebook Sets Out To Make The Entire Web Its Tributary System: http://bit.ly/5vfyu |
 |
PaintHorseAus: RT @swhorsetrader: rt @worldshow THOMAS, SIDNEY (#2580) from MORGANTON, NORTH CAROLINA and Tributary are the 2009 W (cont) http://tl.gd/si1g |
 |
DeePhunk: @audibletreats I def could see u crying a Tributary or two. |
|
