loam

American  

[lohm] / loʊm /

noun

1. a rich, friable soil containing a relatively equal mixture of sand and silt and a somewhat smaller proportion of clay.

2. a mixture of clay, sand, straw, etc., used in making molds for founding and in plastering walls, stopping holes, etc.

3. earth or soil.

4. Obsolete. clay or clayey earth.

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verb (used with object)

1. to cover or stop with loam.

loam British  

/ ləʊm /

noun

1. rich soil consisting of a mixture of sand, clay, and decaying organic material

2. a paste of clay and sand used for making moulds in a foundry, plastering walls, etc

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verb

1. (tr) to cover, treat, or fill with loam

loam Scientific  

/ lōm /

1. Soil composed of approximately equal quantities of sand, silt, and clay, often with variable amounts of decayed plant matter.

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Other Word Forms

• loaminess noun
• loamless adjective
• loamy adjective

Etymology

Origin of loam

First recorded before 900; from late Middle English lome, earlier lam(e), Old English lām; cognate with Dutch leem, German Lehm “loam, clay”; akin to lime ²

Explanation

Loam is soil — rich soil — that is a mix of sand, clay, and various organic materials. Loam is often used to make bricks. Loam is a type of soil that's got a lot going on: loam contains clay, sand, and decaying organic substances. This combination makes loam particularly useful as a building material. Many bricks are made from loam. It can help you remember loam is used in building if you know that it’s often referred to as "clayey earth." Because of the organic material, loam is also useful as soil for growing crops. This rich soil is helpful in both building and growing.

Example Sentences

Stories multiply like toadstools in forest loam in the fiction of Thomas Pynchon, America’s most devout skeptic of the narrative urge, yet also one of its greatest exponents.

From The Wall Street Journal • Dec. 12, 2025

The result, if we want to get really geeky, is a mix of clay, pure sand and sandy loam.

From BBC • Nov. 21, 2024

That’s because, contrary to the shibboleth, the good isn’t the enemy of the great—it’s the loam of the great.

From The New Yorker • Jun. 9, 2023

Dalya, who lives two doors down, wanders by to share insights about cultivating shitakes on loam in a shady side yard.

From Los Angeles Times • May 29, 2023

It will crack then like ice under the pick, and through the breaks I will see the loam, fertile, free of pebbles and twigs.

From "Sula" by Toni Morrison

Related Words

• acreage
• area
• beach
• continent
• country
• countryside
• district
• earth
• estate
• farmland
• field
• ground
• home
• homeland
• nation
• parcel
• plot
• province
• ranch
• real estate