loam
Americannoun
-
loams
plural
-
a rich, friable soil containing a relatively equal mixture of sand and silt and a somewhat smaller proportion of clay.
-
a mixture of clay, sand, straw, etc., used in making molds for founding and in plastering walls, stopping holes, etc.
-
earth or soil.
-
Obsolete. clay or clayey earth.
verb (used with object)
noun
-
rich soil consisting of a mixture of sand, clay, and decaying organic material
-
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
Looking to grow your vocabulary? Check out this interactive, curated word list from our team of English language specialists at Vocabulary.com – one of over 17,000 lists we've built to help learners worldwide!
Dirty Words: The Language of Gardening
Interested in learning more words like this one? Our team at Vocabulary.com has got you covered! You can review flashcards, quiz yourself, practice spelling, and more – and it's all completely free to use!
Physical Geography - Middle School
Want to remember this word for good? Start your learning journey today with our library of interactive, themed word lists built by the experts at Vocabulary.com – we'll help you make the most of your study time!
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
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
Dr. Trefusis accompanied them ashore, and ’twas my pleasure to escort him through the rough terrain of flat stump and loam we have made of the forest, down to the peninsula and to our tent.
From "The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing, Traitor to the Nation, Volume II: The Kingdom on the Waves" by M.T. Anderson
Soil.—Sand and loams in great variety, grading from mere sand to adobe, make up the soils of the state.
From Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 5, Slice 1 "Calhoun" to "Camoens" by Various
Sandy loams are, therefore, our best pineapple soils, though it does well on free loams of basaltic or alluvial origin.
From Fruits of Queensland by Albert H. Benson
The uppermost stratum of these pits or mines is a rich fertile yellow loam, exactly resembling our diluvial loams.
The red loams of South Africa, where not too sandy, make excellent pisé.
From Cottage Building in Cob, Pisé, Chalk and Clay a Renaissance (2nd edition) by Clough Williams-Ellis
Now the Allier divides it; and the astonished cultivator digs into virgin strata of fertile loams, the lowest depths of which have never yet been revealed.
From Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, Volume 60, No. 372, October 1846 by Various
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.
