Word.ws English Dictionary

freshwater

Syllables: fresh·wa·terUK/ˈfɹɛʃˌwɔːtə(ɹ)/

More pronunciations (1)Fewer pronunciations

cot caught merger/ˈfɹɛʃˌwɑtər/

freshwater adjective: living in fresh water. Also the alternative form of fresh water.

Adjective

freshwater (not comparable)

  1. Living in fresh water.
    • The trout is a freshwater fish.
  2. Consisting of fresh water.
    • Lake Baikal is the world's largest freshwater lake in terms of volume.
  3. Unskilled as a seaman.
    • “Mate,” said the captain in a low voice, “you talk like a fresh-water sailor. I can only attribute this shyness to some strange delusion, for surely,”—his voice assumed a slightly sneering tone as he said this—“surely I am not to suppose that you have become soft-hearted! […]1858, R M Ballantyne, The Coral Island
  4. (US) Neoclassical, in reference to the macroeconomics and economic departments near the Great Lakes.
    • Meanwhile, the freshwater side of the dispute rapidly reverted to arguments from the nineteenth century, which had been debunked by Keynes and Irving Fisher.2012, John Quiggin, Zombie Economics: How Dead Ideas Still Walk Among Us, Princeton University Press (expanded paperback ed., 1st ed. from 2010), →ISBN, page 86.
    Synonyms:
    sweetwater

Noun

freshwater (countable and uncountable, plural freshwaters)

  1. (countable) A body of fresh water.
    • Fossils with low Sr/Ca ratios indicating origin in a freshwater of a type which has a low Sr/Ca ratio: […]1953, Publications of the Institute of Marine Science, volumes 3-4, page 100
    • Smith (1958) found that N. limnicola in Lake Merced, virtually a freshwater, had no paragnaths or at the most one on section I against the "normal" 1–2.1967, Bent J. Muus, The Fauna of Danish Estuaries and Lagoons, page 87

Proper noun capitalized: Freshwater

Freshwater

  1. A large village and civil parish in the west of the Isle of Wight, England (OS grid ref SZ3387).
  2. A settlement on Bell Island, Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada.
  3. A designated place at Conception Bay, Newfoundland and Labrador.
  4. A neighbourhood of Placentia, Newfoundland and Labrador.
  5. An unincorporated community in Humboldt County, California, United States.
  6. An unincorporated community in Nelson County, Virginia, United States.
  7. A northern suburb of Sydney in Northern Beaches council area, New South Wales, Australia.
  8. A suburb of Cairns in Cairns Region, Queensland, Australia.
  9. A surname.

Also used as

freshwater is also the alternative form of fresh water.

freshwater meaning in Malayalam and Malay

freshwater in Malayalam

living in fresh water
ശുദ്ധജല śuddhajala
consisting of fresh water
ശുദ്ധജലം śuddhajalaṁ

freshwater in Malay

living in fresh water
air tawar

Examples of freshwater in a sentence

  • The chances of long-term preservation of fossils in freshwaters are minimal, for freshwaters are readily disturbed and destroyed by drought on the land masses.2013, Brian R. Moss, Ecology of Fresh Waters: A View for the Twenty-First Century:
  • Freshwaters are portrayed in many artforms, including books such as Kenneth Grahame's childrens'^([sic]) story Wind in the Willows.2015, Sophie Lake, Durwyn Liley, Robert Still, Britain's Habitats:

All 40 example sentences with freshwater

Synonyms of freshwater

Forms of freshwater

pluralfreshwaters

Origin of freshwater

From Middle English freche watur, fresshe water; equivalent to fresh + water.

Words formed from freshwater

Phrases with freshwater

Questions about freshwater

What does freshwater mean?
Freshwater means living in fresh water.
What is freshwater in Malayalam?
Freshwater in Malayalam is ശുദ്ധജല (śuddhajala), ശുദ്ധജലം (śuddhajalaṁ). See Freshwater meaning in Malayalam.
How do you use freshwater in a sentence?
The chances of long-term preservation of fossils in freshwaters are minimal, for freshwaters are readily disturbed and destroyed by drought on the land masses.
What part of speech is freshwater?
Freshwater can be an adjective, a noun or a proper noun.
How do you pronounce freshwater?
Freshwater is pronounced /ˈfɹɛʃˌwɔːtə(ɹ)/ (UK).

Words near freshwater in the dictionary

  1. Freshour
  2. Freshours
  3. freshpeople
  4. freshperson
  5. freshpersons
  6. freshwater
  7. freshwater crayfish
  8. Freshwater Creek
  9. freshwater drum
  10. freshwater drums
  11. freshwater hydra

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: freshwater (page history and authors); Freshwater (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vininn126-freshwater.wav.

Cite this entry: “freshwater.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/freshwater. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.