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

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Colorado River

Over the last five years, cities across Southern California have received nearly one-fourth of their water from the Colorado River.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 21, 2026

In May, the powerful Imperial Irrigation District nixed Rucci’s plan to buy farmland, leave it fallow and use the allotted water from the Colorado River to cool the data center.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 19, 2026

Power and water have emerged as major issues in the data-center dispute in this arid region, where sprawling lettuce and alfalfa farms rely on the Colorado River for irrigation.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 19, 2026

The region primarily relies on water from the overtapped and shrinking Colorado River.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 17, 2026

He made a brief excursion up the Bill Williams River, a tributary of the Colorado, then continued downstream through the Colorado River Indian Reservation, the Cibola National Wildlife Refuge, the Imperial National Wildlife Refuge.

From "Into the Wild" by Jon Krakauer