Plants' source of nutrients is the soil, and the most nutrient rich soil is detritus, a stew of decaying organic matter from a variety of sources.
Source: tatoeba (8160733)
Detritus
//dɪˈtɹaɪ.təs//
Synonyms for "detritus" (79 found)
Ranked by relevance and common usage.
Closest matches (16)
Strong matches (24)
Related words (39)
Related word relations
OpenGloss and ConceptNet supply richer edges like generalizations, collocations, and derivations.
More general
5 entriesSynonyms
1 entriesRelated terms
2 entriesat location
1 entriesderived
12 entrieshas context
2 entriesis a
3 entriesrelated to
8 entriesTranslations
34 translations across 13 languages.
Catalan
4 entries- detrit noun (debris or fragments of disintegrated material)
- detritus noun (geology: pieces of rock broken off)
- detritus noun (biology: organic waste material)
- detritus noun (debris or fragments of disintegrated material)
Chinese Mandarin
1 entries- 岩屑 noun (geology: pieces of rock broken off)
Esperanto
1 entries- rubo noun (debris or fragments of disintegrated material)
Finnish
3 entries- detritus noun (biology: organic waste material)
- detritus noun (debris or fragments of disintegrated material)
- karike noun (biology: organic waste material)
Galician
2 entries- detrito noun (geology: pieces of rock broken off)
- detrito noun (biology: organic waste material)
German
4 entries- Detritus noun (geology: pieces of rock broken off)
- Detritus noun (biology: organic waste material)
- Detritus noun (debris or fragments of disintegrated material)
- Geröll noun (geology: pieces of rock broken off)
Hebrew
1 entries- רָקָב noun (biology: organic waste material)
Irish
1 entries- turscar noun (biology: organic waste material)
Latin
1 entries- strāgēs noun (debris or fragments of disintegrated material)
Māori
2 entries- pōpopo noun (biology: organic waste material)
- toenga whakapopo noun (biology: organic waste material)
Polish
2 entries- detrytus noun (geology: pieces of rock broken off)
- detrytus noun (biology: organic waste material)
Russian
4 entries- детри́т noun (geology: pieces of rock broken off)
- детри́т noun (biology: organic waste material)
- обломки noun (debris or fragments of disintegrated material)
- осколки noun (debris or fragments of disintegrated material)
Swedish
3 entries- detritus noun (geology: pieces of rock broken off)
- detritus noun (biology: organic waste material)
- detritus noun (debris or fragments of disintegrated material)
Sample sentences
6 total sentences available.
The sprawling patch of detritus, known as the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, contains nearly 80,000 tons of plastic, a study released Thursday found.
Source: tatoeba (11802976)
The garnets in the detritus are accompanied by zircon, spinel, corundum, cyanite, tourmaline, olivine, etc.
Source: tatoeba (12351523)
Woody detritus is an important component of forested ecosystems. It can reduce erosion and affects soil development, stores nutrients and water, provides a major source of energy and nutrients, and serves as a seedbed for plants and as a major habitat for decomposers and hetereotrophs.
Source: wiktionary
Showing 4 of 6 available sentences.
Keep exploring
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.