aquifer

[ ak-wuh-fer ]
See synonyms for aquifer on Thesaurus.com
noun
  1. any geological formation containing or conducting groundwater, especially one that supplies the water for wells, springs, etc.

Origin of aquifer

1
First recorded in 1900–05; probably from French aquifère (adjective); see aqui-, -fer

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024

How to use aquifer in a sentence

  • Fissures opened in the loose superficial deposits, and in places spouted water mingled with sand from shallow underlying aquifers.

    The Elements of Geology | William Harmon Norton
  • And where the aquifers in question do not feed the original source stream system, a big subtraction is again involved.

    The Nation's River | United States Department of the Interior

British Dictionary definitions for aquifer

aquifer

/ (ˈækwɪfə) /


noun
  1. a porous deposit of rock, such as a sandstone, containing water that can be used to supply wells

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Scientific definitions for aquifer

aquifer

[ ăkwə-fər ]


  1. An underground layer of permeable rock, sediment (usually sand or gravel), or soil that yields water. The pore spaces in aquifers are filled with water and are interconnected, so that water flows through them. Sandstones, unconsolidated gravels, and porous limestones make the best aquifers. They can range from a few square kilometers to thousands of square kilometers in size.

The American Heritage® Science Dictionary Copyright © 2011. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.