peneplain

American  

[pee-nuh-playn, pee-nuh-playn] / ˈpi nəˌpleɪn, ˌpi nəˈpleɪn /

Or peneplane

noun

Geology.

1. an area reduced almost to a plain by erosion.

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peneplain British  

/ ˈpiːnɪˌpleɪn, ˌpiːnɪˈpleɪn /

noun

1. a relatively flat land surface produced by a long period of erosion

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Other Word Forms

• peneplanation
  noun

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Etymology

Origin of peneplain

First recorded in 1885–90; pene- + plain ¹

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Example Sentences

See Examples For:

peneplain

Peace does not reign in a science, they say, until its peaks and valleys have worn to a featureless peneplain grazed by placid ruminants.

From Time Magazine Archive

The bottoms of the broad depressions represent the Shenandoah peneplain, which is sharply trenched by the modern river channels.

From North America by Israel C. (Cook) Russell

Between these mediterraneans lay a great central land which included the pre-Cambrian U-shaped area of the Laurentian peneplain, and probably extended southward to the latitude of New Orleans.

From The Elements of Geology by William Harmon Norton

It is not intended by this statement to imply that all of the 70 Atlantic plateau was ever a single great peneplain, but the same general history seems to apply to the entire region.

From North America by Israel C. (Cook) Russell

By the uplift, the streams were rejuvenated, and sunk their valleys into the elevated peneplain.

From The Geography of the Region about Devils Lake and the Dalles of the Wisconsin by Wallace W. Atwood

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