Image: Wikimedia Commons

river source

Start of a river or stream

Also known as source · headwaters · origin of the watercourse · origin · river origin

Instance of: source type
Subclass of: geographical feature
, beginning of a watercourse
, spring

Overview

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia · Read full article · Text CC BY-SA 4.0

The source or headwater of a river or stream is the geographical point of its beginning, specifically where surface runoff water begins to accumulate into a flowing channel of water. A river or stream into which one or many tributary rivers or streams flow has many headwaters, these being all of the individual headwaters of its tributaries. Each headwater is one of the river or stream's sources, as it is the place where surface runoffs from rainwater, meltwater, or spring water begin accumulating into a more substantial and consistent flow that becomes a first-order tributary of that river or stream. The tributary with the longest channel of all the tributaries to a river or stream, such length measured from that tributary's headwater to its mouth where it discharges into the river or stream, is the main stem of the river or stream in question.

Overview

All data

21 statements · 24% with external sources · numbers in brackets are citations

Main Wikidata property: origin of the watercourse
Different from: beginning of a watercourse
initial tributary
Opposite of: river mouth

On other databases

10 identifiers linking river source across the web's reference databases

Data quality

statements

24%

externally sourced

Source last edited August 23, 2026. AIDB refreshes this page daily.

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Cite this page

AIDB. (2026). river source (Q7376362). Retrieved from https://aidb.si/e/river-source-Q7376362