brackish
Americanadjective
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somewhat salty or briny, as the water in an estuary or salt marsh, which is not as salty as the sea but saltier than a river.
These brackish swamps are some of the state’s most important ecosystems.
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The coffee was brackish and stale.
adjective
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of brackish
First recorded in 1550–60; from Dutch brak “salty” + -ish 1 (in the sense “somewhat”)
Explanation
Something that is brackish is unpleasant and harsh, like the coffee you left on too long or the water in a muddy pond. The adjective brackish has roots in the Dutch word brac, meaning salty, and the word is used literally to describe water that is salty. You’ll often find brackish water in areas where salty seawater mixes with freshwater, such as "the brackish water of a Louisiana bayou." The word can be used more generally, however, to describe something that is distasteful and harsh, not just salty. When used in this way you’ll still most likely hear the term applied to liquids, such as a brackish tea that makes you wrinkle your nose when you taste it.
Vocabulary lists containing brackish
100 Words Every Middle Schooler Should Know
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100 SAT Words Beginning with "B"
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Something's Fishy: A Fresh Catch of Aquatic Words
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
As freshwater input grew, the seaway gradually changed from salty to brackish and eventually to mostly freshwater, similar to conditions seen today in the Gulf of Bothnia.
From Science Daily • Dec. 15, 2025
Just outside the city, it is pumping brackish groundwater from wells and discharging it into the Nueces River, which flows into a water treatment plant.
From The Wall Street Journal • Oct. 12, 2025
It has brackish waters, a mix of fresh and salt.
From Los Angeles Times • Oct. 7, 2025
Homes are crumbling, open drains line the narrow lanes and a stagnant puddle near the local temple has turned brackish.
From BBC • Aug. 10, 2025
Lee, once he had given up his brackish bookish dream, made a new kind of place for himself in the house beside Reynaud’s Bakery.
From "East of Eden" by John Steinbeck
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
