detritus
noun
rock in small particles or other material worn or broken away from a mass, as by the action of water or glacial ice.
detrital
-
a word derived from
detritus.
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.
These isotopes helped determine whether clay minerals played a role in fossilization and whether those clays came from land, known as detrital clays, or formed directly within the seafloor, known as authigenic clays.
From Science Daily ● Jan. 27, 2026
The results showed that detrital clay particles were already present in the sediment that covered the organisms.
From Science Daily ● Jan. 27, 2026
"We found that many animals at the depth of discharge depend on naturally occurring small detrital particles -- the very food that mining plume particles replace."
From Science Daily ● Nov. 8, 2025
The primary producers of detrital food webs are decomposers whereas those of grazing food webs are non-photosynthetic.
From Textbooks ● Jun. 9, 2022
Here the natives collect dust by laborious washings of detrital sand.
From To The Gold Coast for Gold, Vol. II A Personal Narrative by Sir Richard Francis Burton
