How to Use erosive in a Sentence

erosive

adjective
  • Of course, these same erosive forces continue to shape Arches today.
    — Shawnté Salabert, Outside Online, 22 Apr. 2021
  • When rains follow, the earth, ash and charred remnants become erosive torrents, scouring creeks.
    — Dennis Wagner, azcentral, 5 May 2018
  • But those same seasonal rains that gift us fossil bones and footprints also have the erosive power to take them away.
    — Jeremy Desilva, Scientific American, 1 Nov. 2022
  • Streams lose resistance due to the erosive forces of flood waters, even during smaller, slower floods.
    — Jake Frederico, The Arizona Republic, 14 Nov. 2022
  • The grottoes, just a half-mile in, are well worth visiting to see an example of the erosive powers of water and time.
    — Staff Author, Travel + Leisure, 1 May 2026
  • From this porch, a short, treacherous path leads down to the ocean, past a retaining wall meant to slow the house’s erosive slide into the water.
    — Patrick House, The New Yorker, 4 Aug. 2021
  • Most were built on highly erosive sagebrush steppe in the Gunnison River Basin.
    — Bruce Finley, The Denver Post, 22 Sep. 2019
  • Our research across 3,000 teams shows that conflict avoidance is one of the most erosive elements holding teams back.
    — Keith Ferrazzi, Forbes, 21 Nov. 2024
  • With otter populations rebounding, kelp forests are too, providing a nursery for young fish and a brake on the erosive power of the surf at the near shore.
    — Lynda V. Mapes, The Seattle Times, 24 Mar. 2018
  • But researchers compared the erosive effects of seltzer to soda, coffee, energy drinks and diet cola and found seltzer to be the least harmful to teeth.
    — Rahel Mathews, The Conversation, 7 May 2020
  • The great-flood faction contended that the erosive effects of so much draining water could help explain how coasts and mountains and river valleys formed.
    — Brooke Jarvis, The New Yorker, 19 Aug. 2024
  • The unique formations were created by the erosive power of the East Fork of the Black River.
    — Joie Probst, Midwest Living, 10 Apr. 2026
  • These divots grew into larger depressions as more erosive energy was concentrated in a smaller area, because the grass blocked part of each wave.
    — Byerik Stokstad, science.org, 15 June 2023
  • The scratch marks, delicate yet insistent, reflect the tension between time’s erosive nature and the human desire to preserve.
    — Lee Sharrock, Forbes.com, 5 Aug. 2025
  • The regenerative, rather than erosive, solutions that ensue, ensure our own survival–and benefit the bottom line.
    — Simon Mainwaring, Forbes, 25 Oct. 2021
  • By studying helium signatures in layers of rock, researchers pieced together its erosive history.
    — Caroline Delbert, Popular Mechanics, 28 May 2020
  • The design firm’s concept also includes the construction of an artificial underwater reef in the ocean beyond the headlands to slow the approach of erosive waves.
    — Phil Diehl, San Diego Union-Tribune, 4 Apr. 2024
  • Towering live oaks, cedars, and palmettos once grew near the shore here, but as the Atlantic’s erosive forces carved the bluffs away, the trees tumbled down and were weathered by sun and salt into pale, bleached skeletons.
    — Skye Sherman, Southern Living, 9 Aug. 2025
  • Mars dust may not be quite so sharp since there are erosive forces there, but the dust storms can be massive—in 2018 the rover Opportunity went offline after one bad tempest there.
    — Joshua Rapp Learn, Discover Magazine, 3 Sep. 2021
  • Landslides are common in the coastal mountains of Alaska where rapid uplift, caused by tectonic forces and long-term ice loss, converges with the erosive forces of precipitation and moving glaciers.
    — Ezgi Karasözen, The Conversation, 6 May 2026
  • Freak accidents like the one in Washington aside, water's consistently erosive force is what our failing infrastructure system has to worry about.
    — Kyle Hill, Discover Magazine, 24 May 2013
  • For the emergency spillway, the forensic team found absence of protection against erosion downstream may have been a factor, and surmised that heavily erosive rock and soil may have lead to headcutting, abrupt erosion which creates a ravine.
    — Risa Johnson, The Mercury News, 11 May 2017
  • According to the research team, the competing theory that tectonic activity carved out the missing rock was put forth in 2021 when a separate research group questioned whether ancient glaciers were erosive enough to cause the massive loss of rock.
    — David Bressan, Forbes, 27 Jan. 2022
  • Advertisement Also part of the ICM plan is an artificial underwater reef built of rocks, cobble and sand in fabric containers just beyond the waves between the two headlands, to slow erosive forces and protect the beach.
    — Phil Diehl, San Diego Union-Tribune, 9 Jan. 2024

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'erosive.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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