as in debris
the portion or bits of something left over or behind after it has been destroyed
the expanse of tree stumps represented the detritus of a vast forest that had been mercilessly clear-cut
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Example Sentences
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Recent Examples of detritus
Any kind of hard material attracts fauna in water, says Andrey Vedenin, a marine biologist at the Senckenberg Research Institute in Germany, who was not involved in the Mallows Bay study but co-authored a separate new paper that detailed wildlife thriving on war detritus in the Baltic Sea.
—
Andrea Tamayo, Scientific American, 25 Sep. 2025
Those aforementioned items—like the homemade transponders that occasionally work and the bombs that always do—are unambiguously the detritus of war.
—Paul A. Thompson, Pitchfork, 24 Sep. 2025
The avalanche temporarily dammed the Lonza River, which runs through Blatten, and small lakes, filled with dead trees and detritus from homes, formed on each side of the village.
—Daniel A. Gross, New Yorker, 27 Aug. 2025
Dahlias, zinnias, and other cut-and-come-again flowers often come with soil, cobwebs, and detritus attached to them.
—Andy Wilcox, Better Homes & Gardens, 5 Aug. 2025
See All Example Sentences for detritus
Andrea Tamayo, Scientific American, 25 Sep. 2025
Those aforementioned items—like the homemade transponders that occasionally work and the bombs that always do—are unambiguously the detritus of war.
—Paul A. Thompson, Pitchfork, 24 Sep. 2025
The avalanche temporarily dammed the Lonza River, which runs through Blatten, and small lakes, filled with dead trees and detritus from homes, formed on each side of the village.
—Daniel A. Gross, New Yorker, 27 Aug. 2025
Dahlias, zinnias, and other cut-and-come-again flowers often come with soil, cobwebs, and detritus attached to them.
—Andy Wilcox, Better Homes & Gardens, 5 Aug. 2025
See All Example Sentences for detritus
Recent Examples of Synonyms for detritus
Noun
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Gas and dust fall into a rotating disk around the black hole, and as the debris spirals more rapidly, it becomes superheated, releasing intense radiation.—
Ashley Strickland,
CNN Money,
7 Nov. 2025
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Try to find a place that will block blowing or falling debris.—
CA Weather Bot,
Sacbee.com,
6 Nov. 2025
Noun
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Israel wiped out entire cities with nothing left but an abundance of rubble mixed with thousands of corpses stuck underneath.—
Literary Hub,
Literary Hub,
10 Nov. 2025
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Although his focus is on his employees and their families at this time, seeing 20 years of his business and life in rubble was devastating — not only for Garber but for those who depend on Grade A Auto Parts.—
Keely Doll,
Louisville Courier Journal,
8 Nov. 2025
Noun
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But while the school still stood relatively unscathed on its steel pilings more than 20 feet above the muck and wreckage, there were other problems inside.—
Emily Schwing,
NPR,
10 Nov. 2025
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The ashes have settled over the charred Louisville neighborhood where nine people remain missing and families cling to hope as investigators comb through the wreckage of Tuesday’s fatal UPS cargo plane crash.—
Alaa Elassar,
CNN Money,
8 Nov. 2025
Noun
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Chreim, 74, finds the names of his grandmother and grandfather among the broken pieces of marble before heading to the ruins of his home.—
Jane Arraf,
NPR,
3 Nov. 2025
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Mogetta said that field work in 2026 and 2027 will reveal more of the ruins.—
Andrea Margolis,
FOXNews.com,
3 Nov. 2025
Cite this Entry
“Detritus.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/detritus. Accessed 16 Nov. 2025.
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