Word.ws English Dictionary

bolson

bolson noun: a relatively flat and arid valley that is surrounded by mountains and that drains into a central basin.

Noun

bolson (plural bolsons)

  1. (Southwestern, US) A relatively flat and arid valley that is surrounded by mountains and that drains into a central basin.
    • In three separate bolsons in West Texas, electrical-resistivity soundings and seismic-refraction profiles have been used . . . to estimate the alluvium thickness and ground-water quality.1974, U.S. Department of the Interior, Geological Survey Research Professional Paper 900, p. 120 (Google preview)
    • The image of a colossal purse is helpful in envisioning a bolson in the landscape: an extensive, saucer-shaped basin, closed at the bottom and surrounded on all sides by mountain slopes.2011, Barry Lopez, Debra Gwartney, editors, Home Ground: Language for an American Landscape, →ISBN, page 43

Forms of bolson

pluralbolsons

Origin of bolson

From Spanish bolso (“a large pouch”).

Phrases with bolson

Questions about bolson

What does bolson mean?
Bolson means a relatively flat and arid valley that is surrounded by mountains and that drains into a central basin.
What part of speech is bolson?
Bolson is a noun.
What is the plural of bolson?
The plural of bolson is bolsons.

Words near bolson in the dictionary

  1. Bolshoe Soldatskoe
  2. Bolshoi Ussuriiskii Island
  3. Bolshoy Ussuriysky Island
  4. Bolshoye Soldatskoye
  5. bolshy
  6. bolson
  7. Bolson tortoise
  8. Bolson tortoises
  9. Bolsonarism
  10. bolsons
  11. Bolsover

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: bolson (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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