floodway

noun

flood·​way ˈfləd-ˌwā How to pronounce floodway (audio)
: a channel for diverting floodwaters

Examples of floodway in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web
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At least four of the camp's cabins that housed younger campers — as well as the camp's recreation and dining halls — were located within what FEMA calls a floodway. Laura Sullivan, NPR, 13 July 2025 Some are in an area known as a regulatory floodway, which must be kept unobstructed for water to move freely during a flood. Stephen J. Beard, USA Today, 12 July 2025 Van Zandt said recent FEMA flood maps indicted that the area in Kerr where the camp was located in zones designated as a floodway, which indicates a very serious threat to floods and where construction and development are generally discouraged, or in the FEMA 100-year flood risk warning. Ivan Pereira, ABC News, 11 July 2025 At the same time, Kerr County officials were considering how to manage floodway areas, including those at Camp Mystic. New York Times, 10 July 2025 See All Example Sentences for floodway

Word History

First Known Use

1928, in the meaning defined above

Time Traveler
The first known use of floodway was in 1928

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Cite this Entry

“Floodway.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/floodway. Accessed 26 Jul. 2025.

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