Meaning & use
sediment
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Meaning
nouncountable or uncountable
Solid bits such as sand, mud, or silt that sink and collect at the bottom of water or another liquid.
Grammar: Usually uncountable in wine, rivers, and tanks; geologists may count layers or types as sediments.
Patterns
- settle as sediment
- a layer of sediment
- wine sediment
- sediment builds up
Let the wine stand so the sediment sinks to the bottom.
A thick layer of sediment lined the old pipe.
Floods carry sediment toward the delta.
Common combinations
- fine sediment
- Fine sediment clouded the stream after the storm.
- settle into sediment
- Particles slowly settle into sediment when the water is still.
- sediment builds up
- If sediment builds up, the filter has to be cleaned.
- a layer of sediment
- Each layer of sediment records a different period.
Synonyms and how they differ
- deposit
- Deposit is the broader material laid down by water, wind, or ice; sediment stresses settled solid particles in liquid.
- silt
- Silt is a fine kind of sediment; not all sediment is silt.
- dregs
- Dregs are the unpleasant residue left in a container, often used figuratively; sediment is neutral and scientific too.
- residue
- Residue is whatever remains after removal or evaporation; sediment specifically settles downward.
Word family
- sedimentary adjective
- Formed from sediment, as in sedimentary rock.
- sedimentation noun
- The process by which sediment settles or is deposited.
Commonly confused: sediment or debris?
sediment vs debris
Debris means scattered broken pieces after destruction; sediment is material that settles out of liquid.
Practice
Choose the best completion: “After the bottle stood for a day, a dark ____ settled at the bottom.”
Choose one answer.
Here sediment is an uncountable material noun for settled solid particles. Sediments would refer to countable types or layers, a sedimented is not a noun phrase, and sedimenting is a verb form.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “sediment”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.