bayou
noun
bay·ou ˈbī-(ˌ)ü 
-(ˌ)ō
1
: a creek, secondary watercourse, or minor river that is tributary to another body of water
2
: any of various usually marshy or sluggish bodies of water
Synonyms
- affluent
- branch
- confluent
- feeder
- influent
- tributary
See all Synonyms & Antonyms 
Example Sentences
a small creek that is the bayou of a larger stream
Recent Examples on the Web But on my first day in town, both the beach and the bayou would have to wait. 
Chelsea Brasted, WSJ, 19 Aug. 2022 John Fogerty was born in Berkeley, Calif., which is nowhere the bayou. Ed Masley, The Arizona Republic, 30 June 2022 The Braeswood location of Three Brothers is in a 100-year floodplain, on the banks of the bayou. Emma Balter, Chron, 25 Aug. 2022 Piles of trash — old tires, mattresses, furniture, home insulation — accumulate for weeks in the drainage ditches along many streets, blocking water from flowing through the ditches to the bayou. Washington Post, 11 May 2022 Ebel narrates her own story with her baby down in a bayou. Juliana Kasumu, The New Yorker, 3 Aug. 2022 Souki pushed ahead, though, and soon Cheniere’s gargantuan export facility was rising up out of the bayou, its hulking steel pipeline arrays and rotund storage tanks looming over the swampy water. New York Times, 6 July 2022 Even with similar backdrops – both Splash Mountain and Tiana's Bayou Adventure are set on the bayou – construction will be extensive. Eve Chen, USA TODAY, 1 July 2022 By late 2024, Disney's Splash Mountain will be officially transformed into a down by the bayou, Mardi Gras celebration called Tiana's Bayou Adventure. Emma Becker, PEOPLE.com, 1 July 2022 See More
Chelsea Brasted, WSJ, 19 Aug. 2022 John Fogerty was born in Berkeley, Calif., which is nowhere the bayou. Ed Masley, The Arizona Republic, 30 June 2022 The Braeswood location of Three Brothers is in a 100-year floodplain, on the banks of the bayou. Emma Balter, Chron, 25 Aug. 2022 Piles of trash — old tires, mattresses, furniture, home insulation — accumulate for weeks in the drainage ditches along many streets, blocking water from flowing through the ditches to the bayou. Washington Post, 11 May 2022 Ebel narrates her own story with her baby down in a bayou. Juliana Kasumu, The New Yorker, 3 Aug. 2022 Souki pushed ahead, though, and soon Cheniere’s gargantuan export facility was rising up out of the bayou, its hulking steel pipeline arrays and rotund storage tanks looming over the swampy water. New York Times, 6 July 2022 Even with similar backdrops – both Splash Mountain and Tiana's Bayou Adventure are set on the bayou – construction will be extensive. Eve Chen, USA TODAY, 1 July 2022 By late 2024, Disney's Splash Mountain will be officially transformed into a down by the bayou, Mardi Gras celebration called Tiana's Bayou Adventure. Emma Becker, PEOPLE.com, 1 July 2022 See More Word History
Etymology
borrowed from Louisiana French, earlier bayouque, perhaps borrowed from early Choctaw *bayok, whence Choctaw bo·k "creek, river"
First Known Use
1763, in the meaning defined at sense 1
Kids Definition
bayou
noun
bay·ou ˈbī-ü
-ō
: a body of water (as a creek) that flows slowly through marshy land
bayous
noun
as in tributaries
a stream that flows into a larger body of water a small creek that is the bayou of a larger stream Synonyms & Similar Words
Relevance
- tributaries
- branches
- feeders
- affluents
- creeks
- backwaters
- headwaters
- influents
- brooks
- rivulets
- confluents
- rills
- sources
- streamlets
- runs
- headstreams
- brooklets
- fountainheads
- heads
Antonyms & Near Antonyms
- effluents
- distributaries