Noun

Singular river

Plural rivers

river (plural rivers)

1. A large and often winding stream which drains a land mass, carrying water down from higher areas to a lower point, ending at an ocean or in an inland sea. Occasionally rivers overflow their banks and cause floods.
   • 1908, Kenneth Grahame, The Wind in the Willows

     By the side of the river he trotted as one trots, when very small, by the side of a man who holds one spell-bound by exciting stories; and when tired at last, he sat on the bank, while the river still chattered on to him, a babbling procession of the best stories in the world, sent from the heart of the earth to be told at last to the insatiable sea.

2. Any large flow of a liquid in a single body (e.g., 'a river of blood').
3. (poker) The last card dealt in a hand.

Derived terms

• cry someone a river
• riverbank
• riverbed
• river basin
• river bed
• river birch
• river blindness
• riverboat/river boat
• river bottom

• river boulder
• river dolphin
• river duck
• riverfront
• river hog
• river horse
• riverine
• river lamprey
• river limper
• river otter

• river pear
• river prawn
• river shad
• riverside
• riverward
• sell down the river
• submarine river
• up the river

• Look at pages starting with river.

A river is a natural watercourse, usually freshwater, flowing toward an ocean, a lake, a sea or another river. In a few cases, a river simply flows into the ground or dries up completely before reaching another body of water. Small rivers may also be called by several other names, including stream, creek, brook, rivulet, and rill; there is no general rule that defines what can be called a river. An exception to this is the stream. In some countries or communities a stream may be defined by its size. Many names for small rivers are specific to geographic location; one example is Burn in Scotland and North-east England. Sometimes a river is said to be larger than a creek, but this is not always the case, because of vagueness in the language.

A river is part of the hydrological cycle. Water within a river is generally collected from precipitation through surface runoff, groundwater recharge, springs, and the release of stored water in natural ice and snowpacks (i.e., from glaciers).