Flowages

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. The act or process of water moving steadily through a river, stream, or channel
2. The accumulation of water resulting from rising levels or flooding in a specific area
3. A term used to describe the condition or phenomenon of flooding in low-lying regions

Etymology: "Flowages" is the plural of "flowage," a noun meaning the flooding of low-lying land, often by a dam or reservoir. The word is built from "flow" and the suffix "-age," which in English turns a verb into a noun naming an action, a process, or the result of one, as in "drainage," "seepage," or "leakage." The plural has its own practical use. In the northeastern United States, where the term is most common, "flowages" usually names the artificially flooded tracts created when a dam raises water levels over surrounding fields and woodland, and the plural refers to several such areas at once. The meaning thus stays close to the physical act of water spreading across land, with the suffix marking the flooding as a completed result rather than the motion of the water itself.