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terrigenous

[te-rij-uh-nuh s]
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adjective
  1. produced by the earth.
  2. Geology. noting or pertaining to sediments on the sea bottom derived directly from the neighboring land, or to the rocks formed primarily by the consolidation of such sediments.
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Origin of terrigenous

1675–85; < Latin terrigenus, equivalent to terr(a) earth + -i- -i- + -genus -genous
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018

Examples from the Web for terrigenous

Historical Examples

  • And thus there are vast regions of the oceanic depressions over which no terrigenous or land-derived materials are accumulating.

    Fragments of Earth Lore

    James Geikie

  • The specimen brought up was a terrigenous blue mud (glacial deposit) with some radiolaria.

    South!

    Sir Ernest Shackleton

British Dictionary definitions for terrigenous

terrigenous

adjective
  1. of or produced by the earth
  2. (of geological deposits) formed in the sea from material derived from the land by erosion
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Word Origin

C17: from Latin terrigenus, from terra earth + gignere to beget
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
terrigenous in Science

terrigenous

[tĕ-rĭj′ə-nəs]
  1. Derived from the land, especially by erosive action. Used primarily of shallow marine sediments.
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The American Heritage® Science Dictionary Copyright © 2011. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.