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A tributary was originally a person or state that owed tribute to a more powerful person or state. Ancient China, for instance, had dozens of tributary states, and the emperor would receive elephants from Siam or young girls from Korea as tribute. Just as a smaller power gave some of its wealth to a larger power, a small river contributes its waters to a larger one. A tributary can be a tiny stream, but some are immense rivers. The Missouri River, for example, could be called a tributary to the Mississippi, even though it's about 2,500 miles long and receives hundreds of tributaries itself.
Synonyms
Examples of tributary in a Sentence
USA TODAY, 16 Apr. 2024
Rising water was forecast in Siberia’s Ishim and Tobol rivers, tributaries of the Irtysh river, which along with its parent, the Ob, forms the world’s seventh longest river system.
—Reuters, NBC News, 9 Apr. 2024
The truck overturned close to Lookingglass Creek, a tributary of the Grande Ronde River.
—Zoe Sottile, CNN, 7 Apr. 2024
There isn’t a minimum in-stream flow requirement for lower stretches of the tributaries from July through January, but state officials say the new goal provides for supplementing flows during those months to avoid harmful conditions for fish.
—Ian James, Los Angeles Times, 20 Mar. 2024
Why: While some Great Lakes tributaries experience a spring run of inbound steel, most are holding fish that have been in the river all winter.
—Joe Cermele, Field & Stream, 14 Mar. 2024
For example, a dam located on the lower part of the mainstem of a river can block migratory fish from accessing most of the river basin, whereas a dam on a tributary could leave most of the basin accessible to migratory fish.
—Jeff Opperman, Forbes, 28 Mar. 2024
In a 2022 resolution, Metro Council ordered Planning and Design Services staff to review development rules and develop recommendations for the area around Floyds Fork, a tributary of the Salt River.
—Connor Giffin, The Courier-Journal, 25 Mar. 2024
Further downstream, the Missouri and Ohio rivers — both major tributaries of the lower Mississippi — are seeing normal to below-normal chances of spring flooding.
—Journal Sentinel, 1 Mar. 2024
Leia Larsen, The Salt Lake Tribune, 19 Sep. 2023
Sometimes the killers may be Chechens maybe organized by Putin’s other feral favourite, his tributary ruler of Russia’s Chechen republic, Kadyrov.
—Time, 24 Aug. 2023
Lilac Solutions expects the amount of lithium it mines will get replenished from the sediments washed in by the Great Salt Lake’s tributary rivers each year, Sully said.
—Leia Larsen, The Salt Lake Tribune, 7 Sep. 2023
The edges of the country roads are decorated by tributary statues and banners flashing the faces of Allied soldiers who died in the fight.
—Catherine Porter, New York Times, 6 June 2023
This was a tributary version of the break-up and floe of ice that historically has happened in all the Great Lakes.
—Andrew McKean, Outdoor Life, 27 Mar. 2023
Your porcelain vase is Chinese, the decoration is hand painted, and the marks underneath are those used during the Qianlong period of the Qing dynasty, but are tributary.
—oregonlive, 5 Apr. 2023
This year, only about 1.2-million acre-feet reached the lake through its tributary rivers.
—Sofia Jeremias, The Salt Lake Tribune, 30 Dec. 2022
Vietnam was a tributary state of China for 1,000 years and was invaded by China in 1979, and the two countries continue to joust for sovereignty in the South China Sea [The New York Times].
—Smriti Rao, Discover Magazine, 31 Mar. 2010
These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'tributary.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.
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“Tributary.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/tributary. Accessed 23 Apr. 2024.
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tributary
1 of 2 adjective
tributary
2 of 2 nounMedical Definition
tributary
noun
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