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valley

VAL-ee/ˈvæli/

Pluralvalleys

4 meanings of valley

Practice

  1. 1
    land between hillsnouncountable
    An elongated low area of land between hills or mountains, often with a river flowing through it.

    The river winds through a broad valley flanked by steep limestone ridges.

    Farmers in the valley rely on the spring floods to enrich their fields.

    UsageUsually in the valley or down into the valley. The plural is valleys (not incorrect: vallies).

    Similarvale, dale

    Oppositepeak, hill

  2. 2
    drainage areanouncountable
    An area of land whose streams and rainfall all drain into a single river.

    The Thames valley collects rainfall from much of south-east England and carries it to the sea.

    The Mississippi Valley covers a huge part of the country, since water from dozens of states eventually drains into that one river.

    UsageMostly in names of river regions: the Mississippi Valley, the Thames valley.

    Similarbasin, catchment, watershed

    Note

    Here the word stretches past the valley floor to take in every slope that sheds water toward the river, up to the divides that separate it from the next river's land. When a name like the Thames valley means the whole drainage rather than the low ground along the banks, this is the sense in play. It is wider than the landform between hills.

    Checked 1 Nov 2026 · 3 facts

    • A river's drainage area includes the surrounding slopes and extends to drainage divides. usgs.gov
    • Thames valley can refer to the river basin, as the item's conditional example describes. en.wikisource.org
    • The drainage-area sense extends beyond the narrower landform sense. en.wiktionary.org
  3. 3
    roof anglenouncountable
    A dip or channel resembling a valley, especially the interior angle formed where two sloping roof planes meet.

    Water pooled in the valley between the two roof sections after the storm.

    The builder lined each valley with metal flashing to guide rain into the gutters.

    Similartrough

    Oppositehip, ridge

Less common meaning

  1. 4
    verbrareintransitive
    To take on the form of a valley, dipping or curving downward as the land does between heights.
    There must be something atavistic in the male blood that makes it rush, relent, rush with the peaks and the valleys, the roundness of Lia's breasts valleying and peaking, the stretch of her neck, the swaying of her hips.
    2009, Gian Franco Romagnoli, The Bicycle Runner: A Memoir of Love

    Similardip, slope, descend, sink

    Oppositerise

    Note

    A writer's verb rather than a speaker's. It usually appears as valleying, a participle trailing its subject: a billowing dress goes "ballooning and valleying" in George Meredith's The Egoist (1879), and hills go valleying into the sea for Charles Wright. It takes no object and pairs naturally with peaking. Keep it for descriptive prose, and in everyday speech say dips or slopes.

    Checked 1 Nov 2026 · 3 facts

Practice

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Origin

Latin vallēs or vallis passed into Anglo-Norman as valey and into Old French as valee (compare modern French vallée), and English took it as Middle English valey. The word pushed out the native dene and partly took the place of dale.