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
Beyond the gate there’s a floating coagulation of detritus.
¶ Sebastopol
The occasional aberration forms in the air.
—
Ariel Saramandi, The Dial, 29 July 2025
Should nature call, there are shovel-ready handlers to remove the detritus.
—Kathy Berdan, Twin Cities, 27 July 2025
Republic Services resumed limited trash pickup services to a broad swath of Contra Costa County, as well as other pockets of the Bay Area, after a crippling strike threatened to leave trash and other detritus piling up outside houses and businesses across the region.
—Caelyn Pender, Mercury News, 16 July 2025
Throwing that detritus away is the third-most expensive component of sweeping.
—Sacbee.com, 14 July 2025
See All Example Sentences for detritus
Ariel Saramandi, The Dial, 29 July 2025
Should nature call, there are shovel-ready handlers to remove the detritus.
—Kathy Berdan, Twin Cities, 27 July 2025
Republic Services resumed limited trash pickup services to a broad swath of Contra Costa County, as well as other pockets of the Bay Area, after a crippling strike threatened to leave trash and other detritus piling up outside houses and businesses across the region.
—Caelyn Pender, Mercury News, 16 July 2025
Throwing that detritus away is the third-most expensive component of sweeping.
—Sacbee.com, 14 July 2025
See All Example Sentences for detritus
Recent Examples of Synonyms for detritus
Noun
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Vipsun Cordless Vacuum Run the vacuum over hard floors and carpets to suck up dirt, pet hair, dust, crumbs and other debris.—
Isabel Garcia,
PEOPLE,
5 Sep. 2025
-
Second, wind can blow dust, leaves, sticks, and other debris onto your wet stain, leaving a mess that is nearly impossible to clean up.—
Kamron Sanders,
Better Homes & Gardens,
4 Sep. 2025
Noun
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Schools, churches, small shops that survived the devastating 2010 earthquake that killed over 300,000 are now a pile of rubble, part of the apocalyptic landscape left behind by the retreating forces that control almost all of Haiti’s capital.—
Johnny Fils-Aimé,
Miami Herald,
8 Sep. 2025
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Timur Tkachenko, head of Kyiv's military administration, said an infant's body was pulled from the rubble in the Darnytskyi district, where a four-story apartment building was damaged.—
Lidia Kelly,
USA Today,
7 Sep. 2025
Noun
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More than two years of civil war in Sudan have displaced 12 million people, killed at least 150,000 (and likely far more than that), put 25 million people in danger of starvation, and left wide swaths of physical wreckage.—
Lynsey Addario,
The Atlantic,
8 Sep. 2025
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While Good Samaritans were able to rescue five of the nine passengers from the wreckage, Angie was still inside, struggling to free herself.—
Amber Corrine,
VIBE.com,
5 Sep. 2025
Noun
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Sardinia, an Italian island in the Mediterranean just south of France's Corsica, is famed for its beaches and ancient ruins.—
Andrea Margolis,
FOXNews.com,
4 Sep. 2025
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Well, or how the ancient ruins of Petra stole the show in the final scenes of Steven Spielberg’s Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989).—
Mathew Scott,
HollywoodReporter,
4 Sep. 2025
Cite this Entry
“Detritus.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/detritus. Accessed 11 Sep. 2025.
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