English

Noun

1. A merger of rivers, or the place where rivers merge.
   • 1722, Daniel Defoe, "A Tour Through the Eastern Counties of England,"

     It stands on the conflux of two rivers—the Chelmer, whence the town is called, and the Cann.

2. A convergence or moving gathering of forces, people, or things.
   • 1671, John Milton, Paradise Regained, Book 4,

     Cast round thine eye, and see

     What conflux issuing forth, or entering in:

     Praetors, proconsuls to their provinces

     Hasting, or on return, in robes of state;

     Lictors and rods, the ensigns of their power;

     Legions and cohorts, turms of horse and wings.

   • 1871, George Eliot Middlemarch, ch. 64,

     There was a conflux of emotions and thoughts in him.

   • 1903, Stanley J. Weyman, The Long Night, ch. 24,

     So great was the conflux of torches, the flash and gleam of weapons, and the babel of sounds that it wrought on the mind the impression of a fire blazing up in the night.

Synonyms

• confluence