valley

Definition

An elongated depression cast between hills or mountains, often with a river flowing through it.

Etymology

From Middle English valeye, valey, from Anglo-Norman valey, Old French valee (compare French vallée), from Latin vallēs/vallis. Doublet of vlei and vly. Displaced native dene, from dene and partially displaced native dale, from dæl.

Example Sentences

• "The Indus River valley was the site of an ancient civilization."
• "[I]t sank down through the air and poured over the ground in a manner rather liquid than gaseous, abandoning the hills, and streaming into the valleys and ditches and water-courses even as I have heard the carbonic acid gas that pours from volcanic clefts is wont to do."
• "The El Dorado-Searchlight area is geologically a north-south trending orogenous zone, paralleled on the east by the valley of the Colorado, and by an alluvial valley on the west."

Related Words