What's the difference between
and
Enter two words to compare and contrast their definitions, origins, and synonyms to better understand how those words are related.

River vs Swamp - What's the difference?

river | swamp |

As a proper noun river

is .

As a noun swamp is

a piece of wet, spongy land; low ground saturated with water; soft, wet ground which may have a growth of certain kinds of trees, but is unfit for agricultural or pastoral purposes.

As a verb swamp is

to drench or fill with water.

river

English

Etymology 1

From (etyl) (m), from (etyl) (m), from .

Noun

(en noun)
  • 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.
  • * 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.
  • * {{quote-magazine, date=2013-06-29, volume=407, issue=8842, page=28, magazine=(The Economist)
    • , title= High and wet , passage=Floods in northern India, mostly in the small state of Uttarakhand, have wrought disaster on an enormous scale. The early, intense onset of the monsoon on June 14th swelled rivers , washing away roads, bridges, hotels and even whole villages. Rock-filled torrents smashed vehicles and homes, burying victims under rubble and sludge.}}
  • Any large flow of a liquid in a single body.
  • (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 mouth * river otter * river pear * river prawn * river runner * river shad * riverside * riverward * riverway * sell down the river * submarine river * up the river * (river)
    See also
    *

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • (poker) To improve one’s hand to beat another player on the final card in a poker game.
    • Johnny rivered me by drawing that ace of spades.

    Etymology 2

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • One who rives or splits.

    • References

    *

    Statistics

    * ----

    swamp

    English

    Alternative forms

    * (l) (obsolete)

    Noun

    (wikipedia swamp) (en noun)
  • A piece of wet, spongy land; low ground saturated with water; soft, wet ground which may have a growth of certain kinds of trees, but is unfit for agricultural or pastoral purposes.
  • A type of wetland that stretches for vast distances, and is home to many creatures who have adapted specifically to that environment.

    • Derived terms

    * swamp gum * swampland * swamp wallaby * swampy

    See also

    * bog * marsh * moor

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • To drench or fill with water.
    • The boat was swamped in the storm.
  • To overwhelm; to make too busy, or overrun the capacity of.
    • I have been swamped with paperwork ever since they started using the new system.
  • * 2006 , New York Times,
    • Mr. Spitzer’s defeat of his Democratic opponent ... ended a primary season in which Hillary Rodham Clinton swamped an antiwar challenger for renomination to the Senate.
  • (figurative) To plunge into difficulties and perils; to overwhelm; to ruin; to wreck.
  • * J. R. Green
    • The Whig majority of the house of Lords was swamped by the creation of twelve Tory peers.
  • * W. Hamilton
    • Having swamped himself in following the ignis fatuus of a theory