conflux

conflux (plural confluxes)

1. A merger of rivers, or the place where rivers merge.
   • 1722, Daniel Defoe, "A Tour Through the Eastern Counties of England,"

     It stands on the conflux of two rivers—the Chelmer, whence the town is called, and the Cann.

2. A convergence or moving gathering of forces, people, or things.
   • 1671, John Milton, “Book the Fourth”, in Paradise Regain’d. A Poem. In IV Books. To which is Added, Samson Agonistes, London: Printed by J. M[acock] for John Starkey […], OCLC 228732398, lines 61–66, page 81:

     Thence to the gates caſt round thine eye, and ſee / What conflux iſſuing forth, or entring in: / Pretors, Proconſuls to thir Provinces / Haſting or on return, in robes of State; / Lictors and rods the enſigns of thir power; / Legions and Cohorts, turmes of horſe and wings: […]

   • 1871–72, George Eliot, Middlemarch, Chapter 64

     There was a conflux of emotions and thoughts in him.

   • 1903, Stanley J. Weyman, chapter 24, in The Long Night:

     So great was the conflux of torches, the flash and gleam of weapons, and the babel of sounds that it wrought on the mind the impression of a fire blazing up in the night.

• confluence