The Paracatu River () is located mainly in the state of

Minas Gerais Minas Gerais () is one of the 27 federative units of Brazil, being the fourth largest state by area and the second largest in number of inhabitants with a population of 20,539,989 according to the 2022 Brazilian census, 2022 census. Located in ...

in Brazil. It is the longest tributary of the São Francisco, draining a basin of about 45,000 km², including 21 municipalities and the Federal District. The basin is almost completely located in the state of

(19 municipalities), including only three municipalities in the state of

Goiás Goiás () is a Brazilian States of Brazil, state located in the Central-West Region, Brazil, Central-West region. Goiás borders the Federal District (Brazil), Federal District and the states of (from north clockwise) Tocantins, Bahia, Minas Ge ...

. The river has a length of . Its main tributary, the Preto, has its source in Lagoa Feia near

Formosa Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia. The island of Taiwan, formerly known to Westerners as Formosa, has an area of and makes up 99% of the land under ROC control. It lies about across the Taiwan Strait f ...

in the state of

and it forms the boundary with the

Federal District A federal district is a specific administrative division in one of various federations. These districts may be under the direct jurisdiction of a federation's national government, as in the case of federal territory (e.g., India, Malaysia), or the ...

Etymology

"Paracatu" comes from the

Tupi language Old Tupi, Ancient Tupi or Classical Tupi () is a classical Tupian language which was spoken by the indigenous Tupi people of Brazil, mostly those who inhabited coastal regions in South and Southeast Brazil. In the words of Brazilian tupinol ...

. Originally ''parakatu'' the name comes from a junction of the words ''para,'' meaning "river" and ''katu'' meaning "good" or "clean".

References

Rivers of Minas Gerais Rivers of Goiás {{Goiás-river-stub