silt
n.n. a soft, wet material that is made of very small pieces of rock and soil. It is usually found at the bottom of rivers or lakes.
n. a fine-grained sediment consisting of particles smaller than sand but larger than clay, typically transported by water and deposited in still or slow-moving bodies of water.
The river is full of silt after the heavy rain.
Farmers often worry about silt building up in their irrigation channels because it can clog the pipes.
The delta's fertile soil is largely composed of silt, which is carried downstream by the river and settles in the shallower waters before the current slows.
PIE word *séh₂ls From Middle English silte, cilte, cylte, perhaps from Middle English silen ("to filter; strain"; equivalent to sile + -t), or cognate with Norwegian and Danish sylt (“salt marsh”), Middle Low German sulte (“salt-marsh”), German Sülze (“meat in aspic”), ultimately from Proto-Germanic *sultijō (“salty water; brine”). Related to Old English sealt (“salt”).