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Downstream vs Tailwater - What's the difference?

downstream | tailwater |

As an adjective downstream

is lower down, in relation to a river or stream.

As an adverb downstream

is following the path of a river or stream.

As a noun tailwater is

the water located immediately downstream from a hydraulic structure, such as a dam, bridge, or culvert.

downstream

English

Adjective

(en adjective)
  • Lower down, in relation to a river or stream
  • She lives downstream from the dam.
  • (computing) in the direction from the server to the client
  • (lb) towards the 3' end of a DNA molecule
  • Antonyms

    * upstream

    Adverb

    (en adverb)
  • Following the path of a river or stream
  • We spent the day paddling downstream in our canoes.

    Antonyms

    * upstream

    tailwater

    English

    Noun

  • The water located immediately downstream from a hydraulic structure, such as a dam, bridge, or culvert.
  • *{{quote-news, year=2008, date=May 27, author=Peter Kaminsky, title=Rules for Reservoirs Pose Threat to Trout Population, work=New York Times citation
  • , passage=Like the more renowned Missouri and Henry’s Fork of Montana and Idaho, it is a tailwater fishery; that is, it owes its remarkable fecundity and its population of big wild trout to the cold-water outflow of reservoir impoundment. }}