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

Example Sentences

Recent Examples on the Web

The Santa Fe County Sheriff’s Office also found a photo on the cellphone of armorer Hannah Gutierrez Reed that showed an unidentified man shooting a pistol in a New Mexico arroyo several days before the tragedy. —Meg James, Los Angeles Times, 18 Nov. 2022

Watching fire run through sequoias is like watching water return to a desert arroyo that hasn’t been wet in a hundred years. —Kyle Dickman, Outside Online, 13 July 2022

Predictably, a big crowd favorite was Orville Peck, whose boomy, lonesome vocals are deeper than any arroyo (Seco or otherwise). —Chris Willman, Variety, 10 July 2022

Across the arroyo, in Mt. Washington, a ravine park is named for 1920s subdivider Carlin G. Smith. —Los Angeles Times, 3 May 2022

Boris, 29, ran across the muddy arroyo of the Rio Grande on Dec. 3 from Ciudad Juárez to El Paso. —Washington Post, 17 Dec. 2021

Far closer, a gang of 30 to 40 dark javelina barreled up a nearby arroyo. —San Antonio Express-News, 18 Oct. 2019

Just below La Cachucha at the edge of a deep arroyo was a hairpin turn to the left. —San Antonio Express-News, 18 Oct. 2019

Native rainbow trout and arroyo chubs were once abundant across Southern California. —Los Angeles Times, 17 Sep. 2019

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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