noun
tailings
noun
1
The waste material left over after valuable minerals have been extracted from ore during mining.
"The old mine left behind huge piles of toxic tailings."
"Engineers built a dam to contain the mining tailings."
2
The lower-quality remnants of a distillation or milling process.
"The tailings from the distillation contained mostly impurities."
How to Use Tailings
Learner’s notesIn plain EnglishThe leftover waste material from mining, milling, or distilling — what's left once the valuable part has been removed.
Common pairings
mine tailings
tailings pond
tailings dam
Study it as flashcards or scroll it in Flow — saved to your collection.
Test yourself on “tailings”
A quick quiz — meaning, synonyms & usage
→
Fill the Gap
Can you complete this real example?
The old mine left behind huge piles of toxic _____.