confluence

American  

[kon-floo-uhns] / ˈkɒn flu əns /

Also conflux

noun

• confluences
  plural

1. a flowing together of two or more streams, rivers, or the like.

   the confluence of the Missouri and Mississippi rivers.

2. their place of junction.

   St. Louis is at the confluence of the Missouri and Mississippi rivers.

3. a body of water formed by the flowing together of two or more streams, rivers, or the like.

4. a coming together of people or things; concourse.

   Synonyms:

   meeting, union

5. a crowd or throng; assemblage.

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confluence British  

/ ˈkɒnflʊəns /

noun

1. a merging or flowing together, esp of rivers

2. a gathering together, esp of people

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confluence Scientific  

/ kŏn′flo̅o̅-əns /

1. A flowing together of two or more streams or two or more glaciers.

2. The point of juncture of such streams or glaciers.

3. The combined stream or glacier formed by this juncture.

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Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• confluences
  plural

Etymology

Origin of confluence

First recorded in 1375–1425; late Middle English, from Middle French, from Late Latin confluentia, from Latin confluent-, stem of confluēns “flowing together” ( see confluent) + -ia -ia

Explanation

Confluence means a flowing together. In a literal sense, it's about rivers. But it's more often used to talk about the coming together of factors or ideas, or of cultures in a diverse city. Con- means "with," and -fluence sounds like "flow." When things come together like rivers do, flowing from entirely different places, you call that a confluence. If the senior class needs to raise money for a class trip, and the drama club is looking for someone to do concessions during intermission at the school play, that's a confluence of factors.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

confluence confluences

Chalk the good times up to a confluence of fortunate events: red-hot artificial-intelligence spending, federal spending and the windfall companies are getting in the form of refunds of some of their past tariff payments.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 31, 2026

The barrier lake, which formed at the confluence of the Chhochen Khola and Purepu Tsangpo rivers, has already started to overflow, according to China's Ministry of Water Resources.

From BBC ● Aug. 28, 2026

Experts point to a confluence of factors that contribute to making buying and renting homes so expensive.

From MarketWatch ● Aug. 26, 2026

But more recently, a confluence of factors has made New York's coast less of a highway and more of a stomping ground.

From Barron's ● Aug. 18, 2026

“See the confluence of those two rivers? We land right in between.”

From "Code Name Verity" by Elizabeth Wein

For Boggs, Baldwin’s nonfiction informed his fiction; there are “continuities and confluences between and across his work in both genres.”

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 18, 2025

My son is a private citizen, but the unusual and violent reaction to his autistic spelling shows similar confluences of eager internet sleuths ready to treat a seven-second clip as a Zapruder film.

From Salon ● Aug. 28, 2024

Harel's focus on the confluences of Darwin's life rather than its conflicts offers a refreshing take on his legacy.

From Scientific American ● Oct. 15, 2022

So it has a lot of really wonderful confluences.

From Washington Post ● Oct. 5, 2021

In our way along the shores we crossed several running rivulets of clear cold water, which, from having reeds at their confluences, had not been noticed in our previous exploration in the boat. 

From A Popular Account of Dr. Livingstone's Expedition to the Zambesi and its tributaries And of the Discovery of Lakes Shirwa and Nyassa, 1858-1864 by David Livingstone

Related Words

• assemblage
• junction