talus
1 Americannoun
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tali
plural
noun
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taluses
plural
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a slope.
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Geology. a sloping mass of rocky fragments at the base of a cliff.
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Fortification. the slope of the face of a work.
noun
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geology another name for scree
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fortifications the sloping side of a wall
noun
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taluses
plural
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Rock fragments that have accumulated at the base of a cliff or slope.
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◆ The concave slope formed by such an accumulation of rock fragments is called a talus slope.
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tali
plural
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of talus1
First recorded in 1685–95, talus is from the Latin word tālus ankle, anklebone, die. See tassel
Origin of talus2
1635–45; < French: pseudo-learned alteration of Old French talu slope < Latin talūtium gold-bearing slope or talus ( Vulgar Latin: slope), perhaps of Iberian origin
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:
Surgeons removed her talus bone, which forms part of the ankle joint, after she developed an infection that prevented doctors from using metal implants.
From BBC ● May 20, 2026
Woods disclosed the surgery on Twitter and said it was a subtalar fusion procedure to address post-traumatic arthritis from when he broke his talus bone in February 2021.
From Washington Times ● Apr. 19, 2023
The first four days featured very limited access points and the entire route required the “North Cascades’ finest bushwhacking,” glacier travel, snowfields, scree, boulder and talus fields, and scrambling.
From Seattle Times ● Oct. 1, 2022
A little past the halfway mark, the trail leaves the forest and climbs a talus slope, offering views of Whitehorse Mountain and Three Fingers.
From Seattle Times ● Aug. 31, 2022
The yellow bull grazed in open view, but the speckled cows stayed in the juniper, listening like deer to Tayo’s approach, their spotted hides blending into the sandy talus of the big mesa.
From "Ceremony:" by Leslie Marmon Silko
The giraffe was a tali drill that had been brought to the village by the two men who had visited earlier.
From "A Long Walk to Water" by Linda Sue Park
A tali was brought out piled with boiled ducks’ eggs, crisply fried pooris, dal, rice, curries, chapatis, mango chutney, and many kinds of sweets.
From "Homeless Bird" by Gloria Whelan
But whatever element of dexterity may have originally pervaded the pastime, it was very rapidly dispelled, and both tali and tesseræ became, as they have since remained, the instruments of wagering and gain.
From A Cursory History of Swearing by Julian Sharman
Non tali auxilio, we exclaim, with a shudder of remembrance, and are very glad to read these concluding words: "I read the promise of better times and of greater men."
From Ralph Waldo Emerson by Oliver Wendell Holmes
There is, however, a symbolic marriage for every girl, by a rite known as tying the tali; but this marriage serves the purpose only of initiation, and the couple separate after one day.
From The Position of Woman in Primitive Society A Study of the Matriarchy by C. Gasquoine (Catherine Gasquoine) Hartley
As recently as 10,000 years ago, bowl-like cirques in the park's mountains were sculpted by glaciers, which left in their wake gray carpets of rock known as taluses.
From Time Magazine Archive
I was long in doubt on some points concerning the origin of those taluses.
From The Yosemite by John Muir
The divide on the left towered up with rugged majesty, reddish in color, and split into gigantic irregular terraces, the taluses of which were all crowded with dense chaparral growths.
It is here that an overhanging and tip-tilted horn, a good sea-mark for Hatiheu, bursts naked from the verdure of the climbing forest, and breaks down shoreward in steep taluses and cliffs.
From The Works of Robert Louis Stevenson - Swanston Edition Vol. 18 (of 25) by Robert Louis Stevenson
The avalanche taluses, leaning against the walls at intervals of a mile or two, are among the most striking and interesting of the secondary features of the Valley.
From The Yosemite by John Muir
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.
