Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- adjective Flowing together; blended into one.
- adjective Merging or running together so as to form a mass, as sores in a rash.
- noun One of two or more confluent streams.
- noun A tributary.
from The Century Dictionary.
- Flowing together; meeting in their course, as two streams.
- In anatomy, having grown or become blended together, as two bones which were originally separate.
- In botany and zoology, blended into one: us, confluent leaves.
- In pathol: Running together: as, confluent pustules.
- Characterized by confluent pustules: as, confluent smallpox.
- Rich; affluent.
- noun A tributary stream: as, the Mohawk is a confluent of the Hudson.
- noun A joining or confluence, as of two streams.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- adjective Flowing together; meeting in their course; running one into another; flowing together to form a single stream.
- adjective (Bot.) Blended into one; growing together, so as to obliterate all distinction.
- adjective Running together or uniting, as pimples or pustules.
- adjective Characterized by having the pustules, etc., run together or unite, so as to cover the surface.
- noun A small steam which flows into a large one.
- noun obsolete The place of meeting of steams, currents, etc.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- adjective Converging, merging into continuous shape (of two or more objects).
- adjective meteorology (Of wind) which
converges , especially when viewed on a weather chart - adjective biology Describing
cells in aculture that merge to form amass - adjective geometry (Of a triangle) which is exactly the same size as another triangle.
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- noun a branch that flows into the main stream
- adjective flowing together
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
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Examples
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I ought to have sent to warn the police and the health officers of the city, for I was sure that the man was suffering from what is commonly called confluent smallpox.
Doctor Therne Henry Rider Haggard 1890
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The Toleure, a tributary of the Aubonne, frequently large enough to be called a confluent, flows out from the foot of a wall of rock composed of regular parallelopipeds, and in the spring, when the snows are melting freely, its sources burst out at various levels of the rock.
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In my former cases the pustule produced by the insertion of the virus was more like one of those which are so thickly spread over the body in a bad kind of confluent smallpox.
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In my former cases the pustule produced by the insertion of the virus was more like one of those which are so thickly spread over the body in a bad kind of confluent smallpox.
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In my former cases the pustule produced by the insertion of the virus was more like one of those which are so thickly spread over the body in a bad kind of confluent smallpox.
The Harvard Classics Volume 38 Scientific Papers (Physiology, Medicine, Surgery, Geology) Various
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'confluent' at the moment at which our imperfect knowing might pass into knowing of a completed type.
Meaning of Truth William James 1876
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If one invests personally in a cause one has long championed, does it not make one's interests more confluent?
David Katz, M.D.: Health Promotion: Practice What You Preach M.D. David Katz 2011
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In a covenant of above and below, may we be confluent with each changing tide; our partnership both the anchor and the flowfor all the days of our lives.
Poems for a wedding 2011
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"That upper level confluent zone is important for keeping cold air in for us," he said, adding, "It's not a textbook confluent zone, but it's an added factor that's helping to keep the colder air in."
At weather expo, top snow expert shares views Andrew Freedman 2011
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If one invests personally in a cause one has long championed, does it not make one's interests more confluent?
David Katz, M.D.: Health Promotion: Practice What You Preach M.D. David Katz 2011
yarb commented on the word confluent
A confluent smallpox had in all directions flowed over his face...
- Melville, Moby-Dick, ch. 19
July 24, 2008