Sedimentary

How to spell sedimentary

11 letters · 5 syllables

How to pronounce sedimentary

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does sedimentary mean?

1. adjectiveRelating to or formed from material that has settled and accumulated in layers, especially rock built from deposited particles.

Sedimentary in a sentence

• The cliff face revealed bands of sedimentary rock laid down over millions of years.

• Oil and gas tend to collect in porous sedimentary formations underground.

Where does sedimentary come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word descends from the Latin sedimentum, meaning 'a settling' or 'that which sinks to the bottom', which was formed from the verb sedere, meaning 'to sit' or 'to settle'. The same sedere root quietly underlies a surprising family of English words, including 'sediment', 'reside', 'session', and even 'sedentary', all of which share the idea of sitting or settling in place. The noun 'sediment' entered English in the 1500s to describe matter that sinks and settles out of a liquid, and geologists later coined the adjective 'sedimentary' to describe rock built up from such settled deposits. The spelling trap lives in the middle: the unstressed vowel in 'sedi-MEN-tary' is easy to slur, and the ending is the Latinate '-ary' rather than '-ery'. Keeping the link to 'sediment' in mind anchors both the central 'i' and the calm '-ary' tail.

How the word is built

• sediment (from Latin sedimentum: a settling)
• -ary (adjective suffix meaning 'relating to')