arroyo

noun

ar·​royo ə-ˈrȯi-(ˌ)ō 

-ə

plural arroyos

1

: a watercourse (such as a creek) in an arid region

2

: a water-carved gully or channel

Examples of arroyo in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

Lummis built his house, El Alisal, with rocks dragged out of the arroyo, and opened it for business, the business of entertaining L.A.’s visiting luminaries. —Patt Morrison, Los Angeles Times, 17 July 2024

The bodies of 11 women aged between 15 and 32 were found in an arroyo outside Albuquerque in 2009, after a local walking her dog found a human bone and alerted authorities. —Dennis Harvey, Variety, 1 July 2024

Hikers can see California buckwheat, arroyo willow, black sage, big berry manzanita and hairy ceanothus. —Summer Lin, Los Angeles Times, 8 Apr. 2024

Cathy McGrath is among the closest neighbors to the project, with a home backing onto the mountains and just across an arroyo from where the company intends to move mine tailings. —Brandon Loomis, The Arizona Republic, 7 Mar. 2024

Word History

Etymology

borrowed from Spanish, probably of pre-Latin substratal origin

Note: The word arroyo is traditionally compared with Latin arrugia, a word used by Pliny (Historia naturalis 33.70) for galleries excavated into mountainsides in the Iberian peninsula to extract gold. Presumably the word was extended from the sense "artificial passageway" to "natural passageway" (or vice versa, if "natural passageway" was the original sense). In medieval documents of Asturias, from 775 on, arogium and variants occur as latinized forms of the vernacular word.

First Known Use

1777, in the meaning defined at sense 2

Kids Definition

arroyo

noun

ar·​royo ə-ˈrȯi-ə 

-ˈrȯi-(ˌ)ō

plural arroyos

1

: a waterway (as a creek) in a dry region

2

: an often dry gully or channel carved by water