playa.

A flat floor of an arid basin that may temporarily hold water and commonly accumulates fine sediment or salts.

Use it for

Words that belong together

• dry playa
• flooded playa

On the page

A dry playa flashed white beneath the sun.

Rain turned the playa into a shallow sheet of water.

Usage notes

Primary category: environment. Forms: Singular playa; plural playas. Legacy lexical fields mirror sense 1 only. Use numbered sense fields for all meanings.