Tributary

How to spell tributary

9 letters · 4 syllables

How to pronounce tributary

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does tributary mean?

1. nounA stream or smaller river that flows into a larger river or lake.
2. adjectivePaying tribute to, or contributing into, a larger or more powerful entity.

Tributary in a sentence

• noun

  The survey team mapped every tributary that feeds the main river.

• adjective

  The empire demanded annual gold from every tributary kingdom.

• noun

  Heavy rain caused a small mountain tributary to burst its banks.

• adjective

  The report listed the tributary streams that drain into the reservoir.

Where does tributary come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word traces back to the Latin tributarius, meaning 'paying tribute' or 'subject to taxation'. It was built on tributum, the noun for a tax or payment levied on a people, which itself came from the verb tribuere, meaning 'to pay, assign, or allot'. That verb is rooted in tribus, the word for a 'tribe' or division of the Roman people, since payments were originally apportioned among these groups. English adopted the word in the 1400s, first describing a person or state that paid tribute to a more powerful ruler; the familiar geographical sense of a smaller stream that 'pays its waters' into a larger river developed later by clear analogy. The very same tribuere root sits inside everyday relatives such as 'contribute', 'attribute', and 'distribute', which is a useful clue to the single 'b' and the 'u' that follows it.

How the word is built

• tribut- (from Latin tribuere: to pay or allot)
• -ary (relating to)