sedimentary

adjective

sed·i·men·ta·ry | \ ˌse-də-ˈmen-tə-rē

How to pronounce sedimentary (audio)

, -ˈmen-trē \

Definition of sedimentary

1 : of, relating to, or containing sediment sedimentary deposits

2 : formed by or from deposits of sediment sedimentary rock

Examples of sedimentary in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web Their research, published in the journal Earth and Planetary Science Letters, comes from a geochemical analysis of 3-billion-year-old sedimentary rocks in the Witwatersrand Basin of South Africa. — Nikk Ogasa, ABC News, "Acidic volcanic lakes may have harbored early life," 31 Jan. 2021 Mars boasts the only such sedimentary rocks yet seen anywhere beyond Earth. — The Economist, "Extraterrestrial hiking Following the tracks of NASA’s Curiosity rover," 16 Dec. 2020 Though the Dominion Group consists mostly of volcanic rocks, the researchers were most intrigued by its beds of sedimentary rock, known by local miners as Wonderstone. — Nikk Ogasa, ABC News, "Acidic volcanic lakes may have harbored early life," 31 Jan. 2021 In 2012, Potts’s team engaged a Kenyan company to drill a 456-foot-deep hole, less than two inches in diameter, and extract a sedimentary drill core preserving a record of one million years of the East African Rift Valley’s environmental history. — Brian Handwerk, Smithsonian Magazine, "To Adapt to a Changing Environment 400,000 Years Ago, Early Humans Developed New Tools and Behaviors," 21 Oct. 2020 Over more than a century, paleo-anthropologists have explored the sedimentary outcrops and unearthed hominin fossils in surveys and digs. — Julio Mercader Florin, Quartz Africa, "Scientist findings in Tanzania show how ancient humans used tools 2 million years ago," 16 Jan. 2021 On the surface, Tidalstar’s marine sedimentary soils are typical of the rest of the Yamhill-Carlton AVA. — Michael Alberty | For The Oregonian/oregonlive, oregonlive, "Partnership provides new wines and a new home for iconic Montinore Estate," 9 Jan. 2021 This fossil was found in 1999 at the site of a sedimentary basin in northwest Madagascar. — Ashley Strickland, CNN, "This 'crazy beast' was a weird early mammal that lived among dinosaurs," 18 Dec. 2020 Many are surrounded by sedimentary layers in assorted hues—and from the outside, a geode looks like nothing more than a plain old ugly rock! — Outdoor Life, "Three Things to Consider Before You Buy a Geode Kit," 23 Nov. 2020

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'sedimentary.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

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Dictionary Entries near sedimentary

sedimentary rock

Statistics for sedimentary

Last Updated

24 Feb 2021

Cite this Entry

“Sedimentary.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/sedimentary. Accessed 27 Feb. 2021.

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More Definitions for sedimentary

sedimentary

adjective

English Language Learners Definition of sedimentary

technical : made from material that sinks to the bottom of a liquid : made from sediment

See the full definition for sedimentary in the English Language Learners Dictionary

sedimentary

adjective

sed·i·men·ta·ry | \ ˌse-də-ˈmen-tə-rē

\

Kids Definition of sedimentary

: relating to or formed from sediment Sandstone is a sedimentary rock.

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