different between clayey vs loamy

English

Etymology

From Middle English cleyye; equivalent to clay +? -y.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /?kle?(j)i/
• Rhymes: -e?i

Adjective

clayey (comparative clayier, superlative clayiest)

1. Resembling or containing clay.
   • 1812, Antonio de Alcedo and George Alexander Thompson (translator), The geographical and historical dictionary of America and the West Indies, vol. 2, page 13, “Demerara” (J. Carpenter):

     The shores of the rivers and creeks are chiefly planted with coffee, to the distance of about 30 miles from the sea : thence 30 miles farther up, the soil becomes clayey and more fit for sugar-canes.

   • 1851, Herman Melville, Moby Dick, chapter 11

     Because no man can ever feel his own identity aright except his eyes be closed; as if, darkness were indeed the proper element of our essences, though light be more congenial to our clayey part.

   • 2004, Richard Fortey, The Earth, Folio Society 2011, p. 85:

     Limestone, of course, is calcium carbonate, and thus chemically utterly different in composition from the clayey rocks below and the hard, pebbly ones above.

Synonyms

• clayish
• argillaceous

Anagrams

• Cayley

English

Etymology

loam +? -y

Adjective

loamy (comparative loamier, superlative loamiest)

1. Consisting of loam; partaking of the nature of loam; resembling loam.
   • 1898, J. Meade Falkner, Moonfleet Chapter 4

     Yet there was no time to be lost if I was ever to get out alive, and so I groped with my hands against the side of the grave until I made out the bottom edge of the slab, and then fell to grubbing beneath it with my fingers. But the earth, which the day before had looked light and loamy to the eye, was stiff and hard enough when one came to tackle it with naked hands, and in an hour's time I had done little more than further weary myself and bruise my fingers.

Translations

Anagrams

• Maloy, amylo-