loam
Americannoun
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loams
plural
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a rich, friable soil containing a relatively equal mixture of sand and silt and a somewhat smaller proportion of clay.
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a mixture of clay, sand, straw, etc., used in making molds for founding and in plastering walls, stopping holes, etc.
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earth or soil.
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Obsolete. clay or clayey earth.
verb (used with object)
noun
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rich soil consisting of a mixture of sand, clay, and decaying organic material
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a paste of clay and sand used for making moulds in a foundry, plastering walls, etc
verb
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
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.
Vocabulary lists containing loam
Can You Dig It? Words for Dirt and Soil
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Dirty Words: The Language of Gardening
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Physical Geography - Middle School
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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.
See Examples For:
At first, settling into the moist loam, the plant is an innocent sproutling, soft and gentle, harmless, edible to browsing Herefords.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 17, 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
It’s a sandy loam mixed with lightweight volcanic aggregate to provide the volume and moisture needed to support plant life while reducing the weight on the structure and allowing for easy drainage.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 29, 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
Too many leaves had fallen and turned to loam, too many plants had grown up and died down over the old home site.
From "My Side of the Mountain" by Jean Craighead George
The pioneers of empire, for all time, Are gold-dust, from the placers of our homes— The surface croppings from a nation's prime, The mellow acre of the richest loams.
From Montezuma An Epic on the Origin and Fate of the Aztec Nation by Hiram Hoyt Richmond
On clays, loams or rich soils, the vines make a rank growth, and the fruits are few, late and of poor quality.
From Manual of American Grape-Growing by U. P. Hedrick
The soil is good, however, despite the fact that each dry season the fires destroy the grasses and the loams which are necessary for their nourishment.
From Through South Africa His Visit to Rhodesia, the Transvaal, Cape Colony, Natal by Henry M. (Henry Morton) Stanley
Such soil is better than light sand, or some of the poorer loams.
From Soil Culture by J. H. Walden
Soil.—The soils of the lowlands are prevailing sandy loams, with a covering of rich mould.
From Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 6, Slice 6 "Cockaigne" to "Columbus, Christopher" by Various
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