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Tributary

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{{otheruses}} A '''tributary''' (or '''confluent''') is a secondary or subsidiary stream or river which flows into another river (a parent river) or body of water but which may not flow directly into the sea. In orography, tributaries are ordered from those nearest to the source (river or stream) source of the river to those nearest to the River delta mouth of the river. A Confluence (geography) confluence is where two or more tributaries or rivers flow together. The descriptive terms '''right tributary''' and '''left tributary''' always apply from the perspective of looking downstream (in the direction the current (water) current is going), similarly to the stream bed river banks. The opposite of a tributary is a distributary; a river branch that flows away from the main stream. A river and all its tributaries drain the drainage basin watershed of the river. Network analysis examines the arrangement of tributaries in a hierarchy of 1st, 2nd, 3rd etc. orders.

Relativity of the notion
In most cases, at a confluence it is clear which stream is the main river and which is the tributary, as one stream is both much longer and carrying clearly more water than the other. It can, however, happen that one stream is longer, but the other carries more water. Which stream is then the main river, and which is the tributary? There are no fixed rules for answering this question. Sometimes the longer river is arbitrarily chosen as the main river. In Switzerland, for instance, the Alpine Rhine, which is longer than the Aare, is chosen as the main stream, although the Aare carries more water. In the case of upper-Mississippi (which carries more water) and Missouri (which is much longer) the choice is made according to the opposite criterium. Category:Rivers Category:Geomorphology Category:Landforms bg:Приток ca:Afluent da:Biflod de:Nebenfluss es:Afluente eo:Alfluanto fr:Affluent gl:Tributario id:Anak sungai io:Enfluanto is:Þverá nl:Zijrivier en aftakking pl:Dopływ pt:Afluente ru:Приток simple:Tributary sv:Biflod

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