Now updated for CSW15. New words, if any, and new inflections of existing words, are shown in red.
| arenaceous | having the appearance or consistency of sand. |
| arenose arenous | sandy; containing much sand. |
| argillaceous | containing clay; clay-like. |
| blackland | a heavy, sticky black soil such as that covering large areas of Texas. |
| blaes blaise blaize | a kind of clay, livid or red in colour. N.B. these do not take an —S. |
| bolar | relating to clay. |
| brickclay | a clay containing sand and a good deal of iron; any clay used for brick-making. |
| brickearth | a clayey alluvium used for brick-making. |
| brunizem | a prairie soil. |
| calmy | clayey > CALMIER, CALMIEST. |
| cam caum calm | pale bluish-grey clay; (verb) to whiten with this. |
| channer | gravel, shingle. |
| chernozem tschernosem | a very fertile soil of sub-humid steppe. [Russian 'black earth']. |
| chesil | shingle, gravel. |
| clayey | of or like clay > CLAYIER, CLAYIEST. |
| clayish | partaking of the nature of clay, or containing particles of it. |
| claylike | like clay. |
| claypan | a layer of stiff, compact, relatively impervious clay which is not cemented (unlike CALICHE or HARDPAN). |
| clunch | an indurated clay. |
| diluvion diluvium | a deposit of superficial loam, sand, gravel, stones, etc., caused by former action of flowing waters, or the melting of glacial ice. The pl. of DILUVIUM is DILUVIA or DILUVIUMS. |
| edaphic | of or pertaining to the soil. |
| edaphology | the study of soils. |
| fango | clay or mud from thermal springs in Italy, used in curing gout. [Ital. fango, mud]. Pl. FANGOS. |
| glei gley | a sticky clay soil. |
| gleisation | the process of making a GLEI. |
| gleyed | having undergone GLEYING. |
| gleying | the development of GLEY, a sticky clay soil. |
| graile | gravel. |
| gravel | a mixture of rock fragments that is coarser than sand; (verb) to cover with gravel > GRAVELED/GRAVELLED. |
| gravelly | of or like GRAVEL. |
| gumbotil | a dark sticky clay, formed by the weathering of boulder clay or glacial drift. |
| gyttja | (Swedish) sediment found on a lake bottom. |
| hardpan | a relatively hard layer of soil at or just below the ground surface, cemented by silica, iron oxide, calcium carbonate, or organic matter. |
| humous | of or like HUMUS, the generally dark, more or less stable part of the organic matter in a soil. |
| humus | a dark brown or black colloidal mass of partially decomposed organic matter in the soil. Pl. HUMUSES. |
| humusy | having much HUMUS. |
| illuvial | relating to ILLUVIUM, material removed from soil layer by rainwater and deposited in lower layer. |
| illuviate | to deposit ILLUVIUM. |
| illuvium | material removed from soil layer by rainwater and deposited in lower layer. PL. ILLUVIUMS or ILLUVIA. |
| kieselguhr kieselgur | a soft diatomaceous earth used as an absorbent in explosives, a filtering medium, etc. |
| laterite | a highly weathered red soil rich in iron and aluminum oxides, typically formed in a tropical to temperate climate where intense chemical weathering is common. |
| lateritic | consisting of, containing, or characterized by, LATERITE; as, lateritic formations. |
| laterize laterise | to convert into LATERITE. |
| latosol | a tropical soil. |
| latosolic | of or like LATOSOL, a tropical soil. |
| leachy | permitting liquids to pass by percolation; porous > LEACHIER, LEACHIEST. |
| lithosol | a type of soil. |
| loam | to cover with loam. |
| loaminess | the state of being LOAMY. |
| loamless | having no loam. |
| loamy | like loam, fertile soil > LOAMIER, LOAMIEST. |
| loess | a fine-grained wind deposit of clay, sand, and silt. |
| loessal loessial loessic | relating to LOESS, a fine-grained wind deposit of clay, sand, and silt. |
| malm | a calcareous loam used in making brick. |
| malmstone | calcareous loam; earth of this kind, formerly used for making brick. |
| malmy | resembling MALM > MALMIER, MALMIEST. |
| marl | a mixture of clays, carbonates and ground-up shells used as a fertilizer; (verb) to marble. |
| marlacious | containing MARL. |
| marlite | marl with 25% to 75% clay, plus chalk. |
| marlitic | partaking of the qualities of MARLITE, marl with 25% to 75% clay, plus chalk. |
| marlstone | a sandy calcareous stratum, containing, or impregnated with, iron, and lying between the upper and lower Lias of England. |
| marly | of or like MARL > MARLIER, MARLIEST. |
| moder | a layer of HUMUS intermediate between MOR and MULL. |
| moondust | moon soil. |
| mor | HUMUS forming a discrete layer on top of the soil with little mineral soil mixed with it, characteristic of coniferous forests and generally strongly acid. |
| mudflow | a flow of mud. |
| mudslide | an avalanche of mud. |
| mull | a layer of humus formed by rapid decompostion, through the actions of a rich soil fauna, in near-neutral or alkaline conditions. |
| murram | a tough clayey gravel used as road metal in tropical Africa. |
| paleosol palaeosol | a buried soil horizon of the geologic past. |
| peat | vegetable matter partly decomposed in wet acid conditions in bogs and fens to form a firm brown deposit resembling soil. |
| peaty | of or like PEAT > PEATIER, PEATIEST. |
| pedalfer | a type of soil, typical of a humid region. |
| pedocal | a generic term used to describe the soils typically found in an arid or semiarid region. |
| pedocalic | of or like PEDOCAL. |
| pedogenesis | the process of soil generation. Pl. PEDOGENESES. |
| pedogenic | relating to PEDOGENESIS, the process of soil generation. |
| permafrost | soil conditions prevailing in area whose mean annual temperature is 0o C. |
| pipeclay | a fine white clay forming a ductile paste with water, used esp. for making tobacco-pipes and whitening leather etc; (verb) to whiten with pipeclay. |
| planosol | a type of soil. |
| podsol podzol | a leached soil formed in cool, humid climates. |
| podzolization podzolisation podsolisation | the process by which soils are leached of bases and become acidic. |
| podsolic podzolic | relating to PODZOL, a leached soil formed in cool, humid climates. |
| podzolize podzolise podsolise podsolize | to make into a PODZOL, a leached soil formed in cool, humid climates. |
| regar regur | the rich black cotton soil of the Indian subcontinent. |
| regosol | a type of soil. |
| reh | an efflorescence of salts on soil in India. |
| rendzina | a fertile soil-type derived from calcium-rich bedrock. |
| sabuline | sandy. |
| sabulose sabulous | sandy; gritty; growing in sandy places. [L. sabulum, sand]. |
| sandlike | like sand. |
| sandy | of or like sand > SANDIER, SANDIEST. |
| sandyish | somewhat sandy. |
| sierozem | a type of soil, grayish at the top and brownish below, based on a carbonate or hardpan layer. [Russian 'grey earth']. |
| silt | a fine deposit of mud, clay, etc., esp. one in a river or lake; (verb) to fill or become filled with silt. |
| silty | full of silt > SILTIER, SILTIEST. |
| soil | unconsolidated materials above bedrock. |
| solifluction | the turbulent movement of saturated soil or surficial debris. |
| solonchak | a pale or grey soil type found in arid to subhumid, poorly drained conditions. |
| solonets solonetz | an alkaline soil-type having a hard dark subsoil under a thin friable topsoil. Pl. SOLONETSES, SOLONETZES. |
| solonetzic | relating to SOLONETZ, a soil type. |
| solum | the surface layer of soil in which topsoil formation occurs. Pl. SOLUMS. |
| spodosol | a type of ashy soil. |
| terramara | a dark earthy deposit formed under prehistoric pile-dwellings in Italy. Pl. TERRAMARE, not TERRAMARAS*. But TERRAMARE is also a singular, see below, with pl. TERRAMARES. |
| terramare | = TERRAMARA. |
| tschernosem | see CHERNOZEM. |
| ultisol | a reddish-yellow acid soil. |
| underclay | a stratum of clay lying beneath a coal bed, often containing the roots of coal plants, especially the Stigmaria. |
| undersoil | the soil beneath the surface; subsoil. |
| vertisol | a type of clayey soil. |
| yarfa yarpha | in Shetland, peaty soil; clayey, sandy or fibrous peat. [ON jorfi, gravel]. |