loam

[lohm]

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.

verb (used with object)

1. to cover or stop with loam.

loam

/ 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

verb

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

loam

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

Other Word Forms

• loamless adjective
• loamy adjective
• loaminess noun

Word History and Origins

Origin of loam¹

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

Word History and Origins

Origin of loam¹

Old English lām; related to Old Swedish lēmo clay, Old High German leimo

Example Sentences

“You could smell the heavy loam in the deep cool woods—the Yazoo and Big Black rivers were running along,” she tells Lyell after an autumn drive through rural Mississippi in 1935.

Read more on The Wall Street Journal

At first, settling into the moist loam, the plant is an innocent sproutling, soft and gentle, harmless, edible to browsing Herefords.

Read more on The Wall Street Journal

Small asides like these root this character-driven mystery in a spiritual loam, a reflection of Inglesby’s narrative contemplation of day-to-day living as an exercise in faith.

Read more on Salon

Monday morning, workers will begin placing soil — sandy loam mixed with lightweight volcanic aggregate — on the wildlife overpass.

Read more on Los Angeles Times

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

Read more on BBC

Related Words

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