loess

See also: löss and lœss

English

Alternative forms

Etymology

Borrowed from German Löss (“yellowish-gray soil”), from Alemannic German lösch (“loose”). Cognate with German los and English lease.

Pronunciation
  • (UK) IPA(key): /lɜːs/, /ˈləʊɪs/
    • Audio (UK)(file)
  • (US) IPA(key): /ˈloʊ.əs/, /lɛs/, /lʌs/
  • Rhymes: -ɜːs, -əʊɪs, -oʊəs, -ʌs

Noun

loess (countable and uncountable, plural loesses)

  1. (geology) Any sediment, dominated by silt, of eolian (wind-blown) origin
    • 1987, Shui, Amy; Stuart Thompson, “China and its people”, in Chinese Food and Drink‎, Wayland Publishers, →ISBN, →OCLC, page 4, column 2:
      The Yellow River got its name from the massive amount of fertile loess (yellow earth) which it has deposited in the wheat-growing North China Plain.
    • 2022, Thomas Halliday, Otherworlds, Penguin, published 2023, page 3:
      They blast their sand westwards across the steppe, coating the foothills of the Brooks Range in an icing-sugar dust of the loose, windblown sand-silt mixture known as loess.

Derived terms

Translations

Further reading

Anagrams

Portuguese

Alternative forms

Noun

loess m (uncountable)

  1. (geology) loess (accumulation of wind-blown sediment)

Romanian

Etymology

From French lœss.

Noun

loess n (plural loessuri)

  1. loess

Declension
Declension of loess
singular plural
indefinite articulation definite articulation indefinite articulation definite articulation
nominative/accusative (un) loess loessul (niște) loessuri loessurile
genitive/dative (unui) loess loessului (unor) loessuri loessurilor
vocative loessule loessurilor
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