loam

American  

[lohm] / loʊm /

noun

• loams
  plural

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 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

---

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.

---

Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• loaminess
  noun
• loamless
  adjective
• loamy
  adjective

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• loams
  plural

---

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

See Examples For:

loam loams

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

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

From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 31, 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

The tide of loam reached the Pomerian line and roared straight into the city.

From "Blood of Olympus" by Rick Riordan

Sandy soils and sandy loams produce the very best roots, most evenly distributed, and also most easily preserved and removed when the trees are dug from the earth.

From American Pomology Apples by J. A. Warder

The soils thus vary from sandy loams, usually on the higher ground, to stiff clays along the limestone hollows.

From Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 7, Slice 4 "Coquelin" to "Costume" by Various

Try to find the proportion of vegetable matter in each of the following: loams from various sources, sand, clay, gravel.

From Ontario Teachers' Manuals: Nature Study by Ontario. Ministry of Education

The lands most sought after have been scrub, deep alluvial flats, and black and chocolate loams; and, until recently, it was on land of this kind that most of the wheat and barley was grown.

From Our First Half-Century: A Review of Queensland Progress Based Upon Official Information by Queensland

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

Random Word

Spin the wheel and learn a new word!

---

Related Words

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

---