Meaning & use
erosion
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Meanings
noununcountabletechnical
The slow wearing away of rock or soil by wind, water, ice, or other natural forces.
Grammar: Usually no article: soil erosion, not an erosion.
Patterns
- erosion of something
- erosion by something
Heavy rain caused severe erosion of the hillside.
Coastal erosion has carried away several meters of beach.
Planting trees helps prevent soil erosion on steep farms.
noununcountablefigurative
A gradual loss or weakening of something valuable, such as trust, rights, or value.
Grammar: Often followed by of: the erosion of confidence.
Patterns
- the erosion of something
Repeated lies led to the erosion of public trust.
Inflation causes a steady erosion of savings.
Critics warned of the erosion of privacy online.
Common combinations
- soil erosion
- Farmers built terraces to fight soil erosion.
- coastal erosion
- Coastal erosion threatens several homes.
- prevent erosion
- Grass roots help prevent erosion along the riverbank.
- erosion of trust
- The scandal caused a deep erosion of trust.
- wind erosion
- Wind erosion stripped the dry field of topsoil.
Synonyms and how they differ
- wearing away
- Wearing away is plainer and can describe small objects, while erosion is used for land and large processes.
- decline
- Decline simply means going down, whereas erosion suggests slow damage from outside forces.
- deterioration
- Deterioration describes getting worse in condition, while erosion stresses things being removed bit by bit.
Opposites
Word family
Commonly confused: erosion or corrosion?
erosion vs corrosion
Corrosion is chemical damage, especially to metal such as rust; erosion is wearing away by physical forces.
Practice
Which problem is best described as erosion?
Choose one answer.
Erosion is the slow wearing away of land by natural forces, which the river bank example shows.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “erosion”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.