Word.ws English Dictionary

coulee

/ˈkuːli/US/ˈkuli/

coulee noun: a stream, especially one in the western US or Canada, generally smaller than a bayou; it may (or may not) run dry in summer, may be sluggish, shallow, and wide (forming in effect a pond or slough), or may have formerly cut a deep gulch or ravine, but at present run dry.

Noun

coulee (plural coulees)

  1. A stream, especially one in the western US or Canada, generally smaller than a bayou; it may (or may not) run dry in summer, may be sluggish, shallow, and wide (forming in effect a pond or slough), or may have formerly cut a deep gulch or ravine, but at present run dry.
    • […] Mauvaise Coulee enters Devils Lake from the north, but it cannot be said to drain the lakes with which it is connected. It is itself a long-drawn-out slough or pool which is broader at those places where it spreads out into lakes. […] the head streams or coulees of the Park, the Forest and the...1907, Daniel Everett Willard, The Story of the Prairies, page 168
    • The small streams and coulees which flow into the Mississippi River in the area are firmly entrenched by the natural topography, and little lateral migration is possible.1982, State Road and Ebner Coulees Flood Control Project, ..., page 16
  2. (Mississippi Delta region) A reach of water in a bayou that is like a slough but deeper.
    • We were in a coulee, which is like a slough but deeper and with slushier muds at the bottom.1989, John McPhee, The Control of Nature, →ISBN, page 73
  3. A lava flow (whether molten or solidified).
    • The edge of a coulee, or stream of solidified lava, though ordinarily a very low escarpment, is exceptionally of such size as to deserve attention in the present connection.1928, U.S. Geological Survey Professional Paper, page 43

Proper noun capitalized: Coulee

Coulee

  1. A rural municipality in south-west Saskatchewan, Canada; in full, the Rural Municipality of Coulee No. 136.
  2. An unincorporated community in Mountrail County, North Dakota, United States.

Forms of coulee

pluralcoulees
alternative formcoulée
alternative formcooley

Origin of coulee

From French coulée (“flow”), from couler (“to flow”).

Words that rhyme with coulee

20 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about coulee

What does coulee mean?
Coulee means a stream, especially one in the western US or Canada, generally smaller than a bayou; it may (or may not) run dry in summer, may be sluggish, shallow, and wide (forming in effect a pond or slough), or may have formerly cut a deep gulch or ravine, but at present run dry.
What part of speech is coulee?
Coulee can be a noun or a proper noun.
How do you pronounce coulee?
Coulee is pronounced /ˈkuːli/ (UK).
What is the plural of coulee?
The plural of coulee is coulees.

Words near coulee in the dictionary

  1. couldron
  2. couldrons
  3. coulds
  4. couldst
  5. couldve
  6. coulee
  7. coulees
  8. Coules
  9. couleur
  10. couleur de rose
  11. couleurs

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: coulee (page history and authors); Coulee (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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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-coulee.wav.

Cite this entry: “coulee.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/coulee. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.