Word Pronunciation & Dictionary

nival

Word Rarity Very rare

Frequency: Zipf frequency 1.17 in modern English

Syllables: ni-val
IPA

8

Scrabble Score

5

Letters

2

Syllables

5

Unique Chars

Meaning

adj

Abounding with snow; snowy; snow-covered (now especially in reference to plant habitats).

adj

Found or thriving in snowy conditions.

Example Sentences

"The observed climate warming during the twentieth century has affected alpine vegetation by increasing vascular plant species richness on nival mountain tops […]"
"It includes the nival mountain top, the moorlands above the timberline, a belt of tropical rainforest, the semihumid footzone of the tertiary volcano, the semiarid high Laikipia Plateau, the escarpment, and the semiarid to arid Samburu Plains."
"In this way, the subnival mountain range on the southern facet with its strong solifluction influence (level slope formation) approaches in height the nival mountain range on the northern facet, which is distinguished by its well developed glacial forms."
"In 1884 O. Heer published a comprehensive account of the nival flora of Switzerland, in which he listed 338 species of flowering plants found above 2600 m.; of these, 6 were found above 3900 m."
"As can be seen from the present chapter, main problems of adaptation, ecophysiology, ecology and evolutionary biology of the nival fauna were hardly investigated at all.” The early history of explorations of the nival zone in the Alps has been summarized[…]"

Etymology

From Latin nivalis, from nix, nivis (“snow”).

Origin

Source language: Latin

Word Breakdown

Root: nivalis

Inflected Forms

more nival (comparative) most nival (superlative)

Rhymes With

arrival survival rival revival arch-rival gingival adjectival archrival conjunctival perspectival estival subconjunctival

Questions

What does nival mean?: Abounding with snow; snowy; snow-covered (now especially in reference to plant habitats).
Where does nival come from?: It is traced to Latin.

How to pronounce nival

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