confluence

• (biology): confluency

Late Middle English, borrowing from Late Latin cōnfluentia (“a flowing together, conflux”), from cōnfluēns (present participle of cōnfluō (“to flow or run together”)) +‎ -ia (nominal suffix).

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈkɒn.flu.əns/

• Audio (Southern England)

  (file)

• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈkɑnˌflu.əns/, /kənˈflu.əns/
• Rhymes: -ɒnfluəns, -uːəns

confluence (plural confluences)

1. The act of combining that occurs where two rivers meet.

   The confluence of the rivers produced a great rush of water.

   1. The place where two rivers, streams, or other continuously flowing bodies of water meet and become one, especially where a tributary joins a river.

      We encountered an abandoned boat at the confluence of the Mississippi and Ohio Rivers.

      Synonym: watersmeet

      Antonyms: fork, branch

   2. The stream or body formed by the junction of two or more streams; a combined flood.
2. A convergence or combination of forces, people, or things.

   The confluence of our skills resulted in a successful home renovation project.

   The political turmoil was the result of a confluence of factors, and the corollary of years of misrule, as evidenced by a low home ownership rate incommensurate with the economic growth.

   Synonym: coinfluence

   Hyponym: confluence of sinuses

3. (biology) The proportion of cells, in a culture medium, that adhere to each other.
4. (computer science, in rewriting systems) A property describing which terms can be rewritten with other, equivalent terms.

• conflux

• overconfluence
• postconfluence
• preconfluence

• “confluence”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.
• “confluence”, in Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster, 1996–present.

• Audio

  (file)

confluence f (plural confluences)

1. confluence

• “confluence”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.