catchment area
Americannoun
-
Also called: catchment basin. drainage area. drainage basin. the area of land bounded by watersheds draining into a river, basin, or reservoir
-
the area from which people are allocated to a particular school, hospital, etc
-
The area drained by a river or body of water.
-
The area that absorbs water that contributes to a specific region's groundwater supply.
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Italy represents Lufthansa’s largest catchment area outside the U.S. and its other home markets, making Italy a key hub for connecting passengers.
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 12, 2026
Residents with low incomes in the Tandridge District Council catchment area can request a grant to help with living costs from 10:00 GMT on Monday.
From BBC ● Jan. 5, 2026
The issue has been hugely controversial along the River Wye in recent years, with as many as 23 million chickens - a quarter of the UK's poultry production - raised in the river's catchment area.
From BBC ● Nov. 9, 2025
The authority added that the majority of students at Cantley had come from outside the catchment area and there were surplus places at several nearby schools.
From BBC ● Jul. 21, 2025
In Haiti, TB still killed more adults than any other disease, but no one in the catchment area had died from it since 1988.
From "Mountains Beyond Mountains" by Tracy Kidder and Michael French
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
