detritus
Americannoun
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rock in small particles or other material worn or broken away from a mass, as by the action of water or glacial ice.
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any disintegrated material; debris.
noun
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a loose mass of stones, silt, etc, worn away from rocks
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an accumulation of disintegrated material or debris
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the organic debris formed from the decay of organisms
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Loose fragments, such as sand or gravel, that have been worn away from rock.
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Matter produced by the decay or disintegration of an organic substance.
Other Word Forms
- detrital adjective
Etymology
Origin of detritus
1785–95; < French détritus < Latin: a rubbing away, equivalent to dētrī-, variant stem of dēterere to wear down, rub off ( de- de- + terere to rub) + -tus suffix of v. action
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.
It was still full of stranded belongings and furniture and detritus, but there were no neighbors there anymore.
From Slate • Mar. 25, 2026
He worries that even more detritus will wash up on the beach in the future.
From BBC • Feb. 18, 2026
Dotting the shoreline is a bleak expanse of detritus: timeworn pumps, tottering derricks, wayward cranes and aging pipelines.
From Los Angeles Times • Feb. 15, 2026
Again, how much of that detritus exists, and how essential is it to the story of the band or the album?
From Salon • Dec. 9, 2025
In less than an hour the guests had left, and servants began to clean the detritus of revelry from the eerily silent grounds.
From "Scythe" by Neal Shusterman
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.
