rivulet
Americannoun
noun
Etymology
Origin of rivulet
1580–90; earlier rivolet < Italian rivoletto, diminutive of rivolo < Latin rīvulus small stream
Explanation
A rivulet is a small stream. A rivulet is to a river as a baby is to an adult. There are several ways to remember this word. One is the similarity of its sound to "river." Another is the suffix -let, which indicates small things. For example, a piglet is a small pig or baby pig. A 300-pound pig probably wouldn't drown in a tiny rivulet, but a piglet should stay clear. Another word for rivulet is streamlet.
Vocabulary lists containing rivulet
"The Ravine," Vocabulary from the short story
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Hatchet
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Touching Spirit Bear
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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.
Then there is the foreground, filled with plush growth, a meandering rivulet and—in the left-hand corner, in contrast to the natural wonders above—a man-made carved Meso-American stone pillar.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 31, 2026
Drying vents affixed to massive undulating columns blast air until every rivulet of water disappears.
From Salon ● Jul. 21, 2024
Then there’s the lone tear that Denzel Washington releases as he is whipped in “Glory”: Two centuries of exploitation in a rivulet of damnation.
From New York Times ● Feb. 8, 2022
I felt a rivulet of rain run down my neck.
From Slate ● May 21, 2020
A cold rivulet of fear ran down her spine.
From "The Reader" by Traci Chee
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.
