wadi

or wa·dy

[ wah-dee ]

/ ˈwɑ di /

SEE MORE SYNONYMS FOR wadi ON THESAURUS.COM

noun, plural wa·dis. (in Arabia, Syria, northern Africa, etc.)

the channel of a watercourse that is dry except during periods of rainfall.

such a stream or watercourse itself.

a valley.

Nearby words

wade, wade in, wade-giles system, wader, waders, wadi, wadi halfa, wading bird, wading pool, wadmal, wadna

Origin of wadi

First recorded in 1830–40, wadi is from the Arabic word wādī

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019

Examples from the Web for wadi

Even with a GPS, it was easy to get disoriented in a wadi, or to mistake one trail for another.
The Fourth War: My Lunch with a Jihadi|Elliot Ackerman|January 21, 2014|DAILY BEAST
Hadeel, a vivacious 27-year-old from the Wadi Ara region, teaches Arabic in a Jewish Israeli elementary school.
What American Jews Can Learn From ‘Dove’s Cry’|Sigal Samuel|November 18, 2013|DAILY BEAST
What he may not know is that from this museum, the site of the Deir Yassin massacre is visible just across the wadi.
Mr. President, Don’t Forget The Nakba|Yousef Munayyer|March 19, 2013|DAILY BEAST
He knows the topography and geography of Israel/Palestine, literally street by street and wadi by wadi.
How to Revive The Peace Process: A Modest Proposal|Letty Cottin Pogrebin|May 9, 2012|DAILY BEAST

To the left of the Wadi are many vegetable gardens, with numerous wells.
The Caravan Route between Egypt and Syria|Ludwig Salvator
The point at which this wadi commenced was about a mile or so nearer to the enemy than the line of our positions opposite Gaza.
With the British Army in The Holy Land|Henry Osmond Lock
The Wadi Mellahah is another huge cleft or rift, running about a mile to the west of, and more or less parallel to, the Jordan.
With the Judans in the Palestine Campaign|J. H. (John Henry) Patterson
Calder was the one man in Wadi Halfa who could claim something like intimacy with Durrance.
The Four Feathers|A. E. W. Mason
It was generally rumoured that he was the Pasha of Wadi Halfa.
Fire and Sword in the Sudan|Rudolf C. Slatin

British Dictionary definitions for wadi

wadi

wady

/ (ˈwɒdɪ) /

noun plural -dies

a watercourse in N Africa and Arabia, dry except in the rainy season

Word Origin for wadi

C19: from Arabic

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

Science definitions for wadi

wadi

[ wä′dē ]

A gully or streambed in northern Africa and southwest Asia that remains dry except during the rainy season.