confluence

Meanings

1. The act of combining that occurs where two rivers meet.
2. The place where two rivers, streams, or other continuously flowing bodies of water meet and become one, especially where a tributary joins a river.
3. The stream or body formed by the junction of two or more streams; a combined flood.
4. A convergence or combination of forces, people, or things.
5. The proportion of cells, in a culture medium, that adhere to each other.
6. A property describing which terms can be rewritten with other, equivalent terms.

1. To join together into one stream.

Etymology

From late Middle English confluence, from Late Latin cōnfluentia (“a flowing together, conflux”), from cōnfluēns (present participle of cōnfluō (“to flow or run together”)) + -ia (nominal suffix).