Colorado River

Cultural  

1. River in the southwestern United States, with its headwaters in the Rocky Mountains of northern Colorado, that flows generally southwest through Colorado, Utah, and Arizona; forms the border between Nevada and Arizona and Arizona and California; and then flows through Mexico, emptying into the Gulf of California.

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Source of fresh water for communities in Nevada, Arizona, and California.

The site of the Hoover Dam.

Over millions of years, the force of the river has carved the Grand Canyon in northwestern Arizona.

Example Sentences

The warm winter led to the worst year for snowpack in Colorado and Utah on record, meaning less water in the parched Colorado River.

From The Wall Street Journal • May 21, 2026

The Colorado River is running dangerously low, and the seven Western states that rely on it can’t agree on how to share what’s left.

From The Wall Street Journal • May 15, 2026

“We’re putting forward additional measurable water contributions for the system,” said JB Hamby, the chairman of California’s Colorado River Board.

From Los Angeles Times • May 2, 2026

Measures include shrinking how much water leaves that reservoir, which flows down the Colorado River into Lake Mead and supplies water to Southern California, Nevada and Arizona.

From Los Angeles Times • Apr. 21, 2026

He dug a bunch of irrigation ditches that drained water out of the Colorado River to grow lettuce and grapes and broccoli right there in the middle of all the cactus and sagebrush.

From "The Glass Castle" by Jeannette Walls