Words / B2

DAM/dæm/

A dam is a wall built across a river to hold back water, often for a reservoir or hydroelectric power: a hydroelectric dam; dam the river. Barrage is a close twin, often tidal; weir is lower. Map the dam on the OS extract, then the reservoir volume. Mix-up: dam vs damn (a swear word); damp; do not write dam for a garden pond with no barrier in the source.

Meaning

A wall built across a river to hold back water, often for a reservoir or hydroelectric power.

Examples

• “Map the dam on the OS extract, then the reservoir volume, not a holiday-lake slogan.”
• “A beaver dam featured in the ecology case, which is the animal-built sense — still name the watercourse.”

Good to know

a hydroelectric / concrete dam; dam the river; reservoir behind a dam. Close: barrage / weir. Trap: damn / damp. Geography and physics. A barrier holding back a river — name the volume or the power output.

Near in meaning

barrage, weir, embankment

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