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
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
Explanation
There aren't many things more depressing than walking on a beautiful beach and discovering a stretch of it that's covered in detritus. Detritus means trash or debris. Usually, detritus refers to waste or junk of some kind, but it can actually mean any accumulation of material, not only man-made stuff. Loose gravel, silt, and sand can all be called detritus, and so can decomposed organic matter, like piles of dead leaves. The Latin word detritus literally means "a wearing away."
Vocabulary lists containing detritus
Lord of the Flies
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Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children
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Just Mercy
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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.
When Willy comes back from a quickly aborted road trip, he drives his car into an abandoned commercial garage, with pillars shedding tiles, gray lumps of detritus piled up, grimy windows letting in dim light.
From The Wall Street Journal • Apr. 10, 2026
It was still full of stranded belongings and furniture and detritus, but there were no neighbors there anymore.
From Slate • Mar. 25, 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
Perhaps food had appeared where at the last incursion there had been none; bird droppings, insects perhaps, any of the strewn detritus of landward life.
From "Lord of the Flies" by William Golding
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.
