tributary means related to the paying of tribute. It carries an Arena rating of 1705, earned across 5 head-to-head judged battles.
Among words judged in Lexicurio's Arena, tributary ranks #556 of 17,126 for Most Elegant Words, #2,370 of 17,127 for Words That Escaped Their Books, #3,172 of 17,134 for Most Malleable Words, #3,721 of 17,104 for Most Storied Words.
tributary is pronounced /ˈtɹɪbjʊtəɹi/.
Why “tributary” is a great word
A smaller river or stream that contributes its flow to a larger one, from Middle English tributarie ("paying tribute"), from Latin tribūtārius ("of or pertaining to tribute"), from tribūtum ("tribute, contribution"), with the hydrological sense first recorded as an adjective in the 1610s and as a noun in 1822. Unlike "affluent," which suggests a generous or abundant contributing stream, or "confluence," which names only the point of meeting, tributary is the enduring term for the contributory act itself. It is the quiet surrender of a mountain creek to a roaring valley, the slow, silty offering of a plains river joining a continental giant, and the countless forgotten fingers of water that ultimately sign their names into the sea’s vast ledger—a perpetual, flowing homage to a greater power.
Etymology
From Middle English tributarie (“paying tribute”), from Latin tribūtārius, from tribūtum (“tribute”).
adj
- Related to the paying of tribute.
- Subordinate; inferior.e.g.“to grace his tributary gods” — 1634 October 9 (first performance; Gregorian calendar), [John Milton], edited by H[enry] Lawes, A Maske Presented at Ludlow Castle, 1634: […] [Comus], London: […] [Augustine Matthews] for Hvmphrey Rob
- Yielding supplies of any kind; serving to form or make up, a greater object of the same kind, as a part, branch, etc.; contributing.e.g.“The Ohio has many tributary streams, and is itself tributary to the Mississippi.”
noun
- A natural water stream that flows into a larger river or other body of water.
- A vein which drains into another vein.e.g.“The great saphenous vein is a tributary of the femoral vein.”
- A nation, state, or other entity that pays tribute.
Definitions & examples from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 3.0).
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