confluence

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confluence

Wikipedia

• (biology): confluency

From late Middle English confluence, from Late Latin cōnfluentia (“a flowing together, conflux”), from cōnfluēns (present participle of cōnfluō (“to flow or run together”)) +‎ -ia (nominal suffix).

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈkɒn.flu.əns/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈkɑnˌflu.əns/, /kənˈflu.əns/
• Rhymes: -ɒnfluəns, -uːəns

confluence (plural confluences)

1. The act of combining that occurs where two rivers meet.

   The confluence of the rivers produced a great rush of water.

   1. The place where two rivers, streams, or other continuously flowing bodies of water meet and become one, especially where a tributary joins a river.

      Synonym: watersmeet

      Antonyms: fork, branch

      We encountered an abandoned boat at the confluence of the Mississippi and Ohio Rivers.

   2. The stream or body formed by the junction of two or more streams; a combined flood.
2. A convergence or combination of forces, people, or things.

   Synonym: coinfluence

   Hyponym: confluence of sinuses

   The confluence of our skills resulted in a successful home renovation project.

   The political turmoil was the result of a confluence of factors, and the corollary of years of misrule, as evidenced by a low home ownership rate incommensurate with the economic growth.

3. (biology) The proportion of cells, in a culture medium, that adhere to each other.
4. (computer science, in rewriting systems) A property describing which terms can be rewritten with other, equivalent terms.

• conflux

confluence (third-person singular simple present confluences, present participle confluencing, simple past and past participle confluenced)

1. (intransitive, transitive) To join together into one stream.
   • 1996 December, Pennsylvania Department of Transportation, US Route 220 Transportation Improvements Project, Bald Eagle Village to I-80, Blair County, Centre County: Environmental Impact Statement, volume 3, page 41:

     CHN 082 flows for approximately 304.8 meters (1,000 feet) before confluencing with the North Bald Eagle Creek.

   • 2025 February 4, Grady Hilhouse, “What’s Inside a Manhole?” (5:59 from the start), in Practical Engineering‎:

     I added a third manhole to my model so you can see how a junction might look. It just provides a nice way to confluence two streams into one pipe, which is an important job in a sewer system since a sewershed all has to flow to one place.

• “confluence”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.
• “confluence”, in Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster, 1996–present.

• Audio:

  (file)

confluence f (plural confluences)

1. confluence

• “confluence”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé , 2012.