erosion

«erosion» in Mova's school dictionary: the slow wearing away of rock, soil or land by water… — its meaning for a pupil, its sense in the lessons and examples, with 5 sentences of Mova's corpora that use it.

part of speech

noun (erosion — uncountable)

meaning for a pupil

1) Erosion is the slow wearing away of rock, soil or land by water, wind, ice or waves. tree →

2) Erosion can mean the slow weakening or loss of something, like trust or rights. tree →

sense in the lessons

A key geography and science word: rivers carve valleys, waves erode cliffs, wind blows away soil. Planting trees and grass helps stop erosion. In formal writing it can describe something slowly getting worse. Phrases: soil erosion, coastal erosion, wind erosion, the erosion of trust.

examples

• Coastal erosion has made the cliff fall into the sea. tree →
• Tree roots help prevent soil erosion. tree →
• The Grand Canyon was made by erosion over millions of years. tree →
• Wind erosion shaped the strange rocks in the desert. tree →
• The farmers planted hedges to stop erosion. tree →
• Erosion is slow, but it never stops. tree →
• Lies caused an erosion of trust between the friends. tree →

note

Uncountable: «erosion», not «an erosion» usually. Verb: erode. Do not confuse with «weathering» (rock breaking up where it is) — erosion means the pieces are carried away. Also not «corrosion» (metal being eaten away by rust or chemicals).

In the corpora

• Breaking rock where it stands is called weathering; carrying the bits away is called erosion.
• Erosion is the carrying away of weathered bits of rock by water, wind, ice or gravity.
• Running water is the most powerful agent of erosion on Earth.
• Rising seas caused by global warming make coastal erosion and flooding worse.
• About a third of the world's soils are degraded by erosion, salt, pollution or overuse.

Trees and pragmatics

Every meaning and example of «erosion» parsed by Mova, each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.