loam
Americannoun
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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:
“A nice scent—really earthy. It smelled like loam soil.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 2, 2026
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
Without him there would be no termites, no farms of the fungi that are cultivated by termites and will grow nowhere else, and no conversion of dead trees to loam.
From "The Lives of a Cell" by Lewis Thomas
The third class of soils are free sandy loams, either scrub or forest.
From Fruits of Queensland by Benson, Albert H.
Very light sandy soils or very light loams with clayey subsoils are usually chosen for these light yellow tobaccos.
From Tobacco Leaves Being a Book of Facts for Smokers by Brennan, W. A.
Such soil is better than light sand, or some of the poorer loams.
From Soil Culture by Walden, J. H.
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 Hedrick, U. P.
In some canning sections, clay loams and even clay soils are used.
From The Tomato by Work, Paul
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.
