meander
mee-AN-der
A sinuous curve in a river's course, formed as the current erodes the outer bank and deposits sediment on the inner bank, causing the channel to migrate laterally across its floodplain. Meanders are not random — their wavelength is consistently 10 to 14 times the channel width, regardless of the river's size. They are the shape rivers make when they are allowed to be rivers.
Etymology
From the Maiandros (now Büyük Menderes), a famously winding river in western Turkey. The Greeks named the pattern after the place.
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