Tributary

//ˈtɹɪbjʊtəɹi// adj, noun

adj, noun ·Moderate ·College level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    A natural water stream that flows into a larger river or other body of water.
  2. 2
    a branch that flows into the main stream wordnet
  3. 3
    A vein which drains into another vein.

    "The great saphenous vein is a tributary of the femoral vein."

  4. 4
    A nation, state, or other entity that pays tribute.

    "An earneſt Coniuration from the King, / As England was his faithfull Tributary"

Adjective
  1. 1
    Related to the paying of tribute. not-comparable
  2. 2
    Subordinate; inferior. not-comparable

    "to grace his tributary gods"

  3. 3
    Yielding supplies of any kind; serving to form or make up, a greater object of the same kind, as a part, branch, etc.; contributing. not-comparable

    "The Ohio has many tributary streams, and is itself tributary to the Mississippi."

Adjective
  1. 1
    tending to bring about; being partly responsible for wordnet
  2. 2
    paying tribute wordnet
  3. 3
    (of a stream) flowing into a larger stream wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms
affluentaffluentfeedersecondaryaccessoryauxiliary

Example

More examples

"During the 15th century, the Ryukyu Kingdom was a tributary state of Imperial China."

Etymology

PIE word *tréyes From Middle English tributarie (“paying tribute”), from Latin tribūtārius, from tribūtum (“tribute”).

Related phrases

left tributaryright tributarytributary loadtributary state

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.