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What is the difference between stream and river?

stream | river |

River is a related term of stream.



As nouns the difference between stream and river

is that stream is a small river; a large creek; a body of moving water confined by banks while river is 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.

As verbs the difference between stream and river

is that stream is to flow in a continuous or steady manner, like a liquid while river is to improve one’s hand to beat another player on the final card in a poker game.

As a proper noun River is

a given name derived from English.

stream

English

Noun

(en noun)
  • A small river; a large creek; a body of moving water confined by banks.
  • *
  • , title=(The Celebrity), chapter=8 , passage=Now we plunged into a deep shade with the boughs lacing each other overhead, and crossed dainty, rustic bridges over the cold trout-streams , the boards giving back the clatter of our horses' feet:
  • * {{quote-magazine, date=2013-01, author=Nancy Langston, volume=101, issue=1, page=59
  • , magazine=(American Scientist) , title= The Fraught History of a Watery World , passage=European adventurers found themselves within a watery world, a tapestry of streams , channels, wetlands, lakes and lush riparian meadows enriched by floodwaters from the Mississippi River.}}
  • A thin connected passing of a liquid through a lighter gas (e.g. air).
  • Any steady flow or succession of material, such as water, air, radio signal or words.
  • * {{quote-book, year=1963, author=(Margery Allingham), title=(The China Governess)
  • , chapter=10 citation , passage=With a little manœuvring they contrived to meet on the doorstep which was […] in a boiling stream of passers-by, hurrying business people speeding past in a flurry of fumes and dust in the bright haze.}}
  • * {{quote-news, year=2011, date=December 21, author=Helen Pidd
  • , title=Europeans migrate south as continent drifts deeper into crisis, work=the Guardian citation , passage=A new stream of migrants is leaving the continent. It threatens to become a torrent if the debt crisis continues to worsen.}}
  • (sciences) An umbrella term for all moving waters.
  • (computing) A source or repository of data that can be read or written only sequentially.
  • (UK, education) A division of a school year by perceived ability.
  • Synonyms

    * beck * brook * burn * creek * flow * rill

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • To flow in a continuous or steady manner, like a liquid.
  • * Milton
  • beneath those banks where rivers stream
  • * 1898 , , (Moonfleet) Chapter 4
  • When I came to myself I was lying, not in the outer blackness of the Mohune vault, not on a floor of sand; but in a bed of sweet clean linen, and in a little whitewashed room, through the window of which the spring sunlight streamed .
  • To extend; to stretch out with a wavy motion; to float in the wind.
  • A flag streams in the wind.
  • (Internet) To push continuous data (e.g. music) from a server to a client computer while it is being used (played) on the client.
  • Anagrams

    * ----

    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

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    Statistics

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