river.
A large and often winding stream which drains a land mass, carrying water down from higher areas to a lower point, oftentimes ending in another body of water, such as an ocean or in an inland sea.
Meaning & usage
A large and often winding stream which drains a land mass, carrying water down from higher areas to a lower point, oftentimes ending in another body of water, such as an ocean or in an inland sea.
Occasionally rivers overflow their banks and cause floods.
Any large flow of a liquid in a single body.
a river of blood
The last card dealt in a hand.
A visually undesirable effect of white space running down a page, caused by spaces between words on consecutive lines happening to coincide.
Where this word comes from
Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *h₁reyp- Proto-Indo-European *h₁réyp-eh₂ Proto-Italic *reipā Latin rīpa Proto-Indo-European *-yósder. Proto-Italic *-āzios Latin -ārius Latin rīpārius Early Medieval Latin rīpāria Anglo-Norman rivierebor. Middle English ryver English river From Middle English ryver, from Anglo-Norman rivere, from Early Medieval Latin rīpāria (“littoral, riverbank”), from Latin rīpārius (“of a riverbank”), from Latin rīpa (“river bank”), from Proto-Indo-European *h₁reyp- (“to scratch, tear, cut”). Unrelated to Latin rīvus (“stream”) (whence rival, derive). Doublet of riviera and rivière. Displaced native Old English ēa.
To improve one’s hand to beat another player on the final card in a poker game.
Johnny rivered me by drawing that ace of spades.
Where this word comes from
Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *h₁reyp- Proto-Indo-European *h₁réyp-eh₂ Proto-Italic *reipā Latin rīpa Proto-Indo-European *-yósder. Proto-Italic *-āzios Latin -ārius Latin rīpārius Early Medieval Latin rīpāria Anglo-Norman rivierebor. Middle English ryver English river From Middle English ryver, from Anglo-Norman rivere, from Early Medieval Latin rīpāria (“littoral, riverbank”), from Latin rīpārius (“of a riverbank”), from Latin rīpa (“river bank”), from Proto-Indo-European *h₁reyp- (“to scratch, tear, cut”). Unrelated to Latin rīvus (“stream”) (whence rival, derive). Doublet of riviera and rivière. Displaced native Old English ēa.
One who rives or splits.
Where this word comes from
Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *h₁reyp- Proto-Germanic *rīfaną Old Norse rífabor. Middle English riven English rive Proto-Indo-European *-yósder. Proto-Italic *-āzios Latin -āriusnom. Latin -āriusbor. Proto-Germanic *-ārijaz Proto-West Germanic *-ārī Old English -ere Middle English -ere English -er English river From rive + -er.
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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.
Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.