peneplain

American  

[pee-nuh-pleyn, pee-nuh-pleyn] / 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

Etymology

Origin of peneplain

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

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

A few other points in the vicinity failed to be reduced to the level of the peneplain.

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

This plain, like all the others in this region, is a local peneplain developed on soluble limestone.

From Drainage Modifications and Glaciation in the Danbury Region Connecticut State of Connecticut State Geological and Natural History Survey Bulletin No. 30 by Sawyer-Harvey, Ruth

How may a plain of marine abrasion be expected to differ from a peneplain in its mantle of waste?

From The Elements of Geology by Norton, William Harmon

The widened rock bench forms when uplifted a plain of marine abrasion, which like the peneplain bevels across strata regardless of their various inclinations and various degrees of hardness.

From The Elements of Geology by Norton, William Harmon