Sediment vs. Decantation — What's the Difference?

Sediment is a naturally occurring material that is broken down by processes of weathering and erosion, and is subsequently transported by the action of wind, water, or ice or by the force of gravity acting on the particles. For example, sand and silt can be carried in suspension in river water and on reaching the sea bed deposited by sedimentation; if buried, they may eventually become sandstone and siltstone (sedimentary rocks) through lithification.

Decantation is a process for the separation of mixtures of immiscible liquids or of a liquid and a solid mixture such as a suspension. The layer closer to the top of the container—the less dense of the two liquids, or the liquid from which the precipitate or sediment has settled out—is poured off, leaving the other component or the more dense liquid of the mixture behind.

Matter that settles to the bottom of a liquid; dregs

To pour off (wine, for example) without disturbing the sediment.

Settle as sediment

To pour (a liquid) from one container into another.

Material that settles to the bottom of a liquid; lees.

To aerate (a wine) by pouring it into a spacious vessel and leaving it exposed to the air for a period of time

Solid fragments of inorganic or organic material that come from the weathering of rock and are carried and deposited by wind, water, or ice.

The act of decanting the supernatant liquid from a solid sediment

A collection of small particles, particularly dirt, that precipitates from a river or other body of water.

The act of pouring off a clear liquor gently from its lees or sediment, or from one vessel into another.

(transitive) To deposit material as a sediment.

(intransitive) To be deposited as a sediment.

The matter which subsides to the bottom, from water or any other liquid; settlings; lees; dregs.

The material of which sedimentary rocks are formed.

Matter deposited by some natural process

Deposit as a sediment

Settle as sediment