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tributary

/ˈtɹɪbjʊtəɹi/noun, adjective

tributary is spelled T-R-I-B-U-T-A-R-Y: 9 letters and 4 syllables. It appears 1.4 times per million words in written English, the 23,835th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a noun, tributary means “A natural water stream that flows into a larger river or other body of water” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of tributary is tributaries.

How many letters and syllables are in tributary?

Letters9: T-R-I-B-U-T-A-R-Y
Syllables4 (from its American pronunciation)
In writing1.4 times per million words; the 23,835th most frequent word form
Wrong spellings searchednone measured in search

Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation and the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).

How common is tributary?

Tributary appears 1.4 times per million words in written English, the 23,835th most frequent word form in the list.

Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).

How do you pronounce tributary?

  • /ˈtɹɪbjʊtəɹi/

Tributary has 4 syllables (counted from its American pronunciation in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary).

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: LL-Q1860_(eng)-I_learned_some_phrases-tributary.wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).

Forms of tributary

  • tributaries plural

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

What does tributary mean?

The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).

noun

  1. 1

    A natural water stream that flows into a larger river or other body of water.

  2. 2

    A vein which drains into another vein.

    The great saphenous vein is a tributary of the femoral vein.

  3. 3

    A nation, state, or other entity that pays tribute.

adjective

  1. 1

    Related to the paying of tribute.

  2. 2

    Subordinate; inferior.

  3. 3

    Yielding supplies of any kind; serving to form or make up, a greater object of the same kind, as a part, branch, etc.; contributing.

    The Ohio has many tributary streams, and is itself tributary to the Mississippi.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

How do you abbreviate tributary?

Wiktionary records one abbreviation of tributary: trib..

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

Tributary in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese

LanguageWords
Frenchaffluent (stream which flows into a larger one)
GermanNebenfluss, Zufluss (stream which flows into a larger one)
Portugueseafluente (stream which flows into a larger one)
Spanishafluente (stream which flows into a larger one), tributario (nation, state, etc. that pays tribute), contribuyente (yielding supplies of any kind)

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.

Where does tributary come from?

From Middle English tributarie (“paying tribute”), from Latin tribūtārius, from tribūtum (“tribute”).

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

What to look up after tributary