confluence

American  

[kon-floo-uhns] / ˈkɒn flu əns /

Also conflux

noun

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, ˈkɒnflʌks /

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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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” ( confluent ) + -ia -ia

Example Sentences

Optimists like Musk and Huang see a confluence in trends behind their predictions.

From The Wall Street Journal

“It’s a confluence of different factors that make dividend strategies, in general, more attractive than they’ve been over the past couple of years,” Senyek says.

From Barron's

The funding deal was driven by a confluence of Saviynt’s maturing business and technology, and enterprise AI coming of age to create “underlying market tailwinds,” he said.

From The Wall Street Journal

The spill occurred near Sargent Creek, just over a mile upstream from its confluence with the Salinas River — a key drinking and irrigation source for the Salinas Valley and much of the Central Coast.

From Los Angeles Times

The second is "confluence theory", which also suggests that only children perform better than children with siblings academically because a family's "intellectual environment" declines as the number of children grows.

From BBC

Related Words

• assemblage
• junction