Meanings
- not comparablegeographyDraining through invisible, subterranean outflows.
One of these is the cryptorheic basin (hidden river) in the Yucatan State, north of Quintana Roo.
2020, JA León-Borges, F Viveros-Jiménez, A. E. Rodre/guez-Mata, M.A. Lizardi-Jiménez, “Hydrocarbon contamination patterns in the cenotes of the Mexican caribbean: the application of principal component analysis”, in Bulletin of Environmental Contamination and Toxicology, volume 1052 more examples
A reasonable deduction would be that under karst (cryptorheic) conditions no surface streams would exist and that we should not look for a "drowned" surface drainage pattern.
1973, W. Manser, New Guinea Barrier Reefs, page 171Sonoran — extends from Río Sonoyta to the Río Yaqui and intervening small basins, most of them cryptorheic, through desert and semi-desert areas, west of the Sierra Madre Occidental.
1998, David P. Olson, Freshwater Biodiversity of Latin America and the Caribbean, page 35 - not comparableobsoletemedicinePertaining to an unspecified or unidentified discharge or secretion.
Origin
From crypto- (prefix meaning ‘hidden’) + Ancient Greek ῥέω (rhéō, “to flow, gush, stream”) + -ic (suffix meaning ‘of or pertaining’ to forming adjectives).
Full word history & related roots →Cite this entry
cryptorheic. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/cryptorheic
“cryptorheic.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/cryptorheic. Accessed November 3, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “cryptorheic,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/cryptorheic.
Source: cryptorheic on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.