freshwater

or fresh-wa·ter

[ fresh-waw-ter, -wot-er ]

/ ˈfrɛʃˌwɔ tər, -ˌwɒt ər /

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adjective

of or living in water that is fresh or not salt: freshwater fish.

accustomed to fresh water only, and not to the sea: a freshwater sailor.

small, provincial, or little known: a freshwater college.

Obsolete. untrained or of little experience.

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Origin of freshwater

First recorded in 1520–30; fresh + water

Words nearby freshwater

freshman week, freshness date, fresh off the boat, fresh out of, fresh-run, freshwater, freshwater drum, freshwater pearl, fresnel, Fresnel biprism, Fresnel lens

Other definitions for freshwater (2 of 2)

fresh water

noun

water that does not contain a large amount of salt.

inland water, as ponds, lakes, or streams, that is not salt.

Origin of fresh water

before 900; Middle English; Old English

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

How to use freshwater in a sentence

The region is often called Earth’s third pole, because the stores of ice and snow in the Himalayan watershed amount to the largest reserves of freshwater outside of the polar regions.
Three things to know about the disastrous flood in India|Carolyn Gramling|February 9, 2021|Science News
The size of the freshwater amphipods that Baikal seals eat, she says, “is much smaller than other krill or amphipod species consumed by seals.”
Using comb-shaped teeth, Baikal seals feed on tiny crustaceans like whales do|Jake Buehler|December 11, 2020|Science News
Researchers had previously suspected that Ancestral Puebloans once exploited the area’s lava tubes for freshwater.
Ancient people may have survived desert droughts by melting ice in lava tubes|Rachel Fritts|December 8, 2020|Science News
Southern California doesn’t have enough freshwater sources to begin with.
Two Companies See a Golden Opportunity in the Tijuana River’s Brown Waters|MacKenzie Elmer|November 20, 2020|Voice of San Diego

With no land to cultivate, and no jobs available, Animesh has taken to fishing in the network of freshwater creeks that swirl through the delta’s jungles.
Asia’s biggest climate migration|Konstantin Kakaes|November 19, 2020|MIT Technology Review
Turtles, fish, ospreys and rare freshwater sharks and sawfish thrive there.
China’s Nicaragua Canal Could Spark a New Central America Revolution|Nina Lakhani|November 30, 2014|DAILY BEAST
Immovable Israeli colonies sit atop Palestinian freshwater reserves in the West Bank.
Old Problems and New Realities|Ahmed Moor|November 22, 2012|DAILY BEAST
Occasionally freshwater or even marine forms may be found in an olian deposit, but they will be exceptional.
The Principles of Stratigraphical Geology|J. E. Marr
At the summit of the Cromer 'Forest' Series, however, is a true freshwater bed.
The Principles of Stratigraphical Geology|J. E. Marr
The freshwater turtle of the Amazon, of which there are various species, is one of the most useful of reptiles.
Martin Rattler|R.M. Ballantyne
Slowly this sea shallowed, giving rise to the alternating estuarine marine and freshwater deposits of the Coal Measures.
Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 9, Slice 4|Various
But they were only freshwater sailors; since, though they lived on the water, they avoided the open sea.
The Ethnology of the British Colonies and Dependencies|Robert Gordon Latham

British Dictionary definitions for freshwater

freshwater

/ (ˈfrɛʃˌwɔːtə) /

noun (modifier)

of, relating to, or living in fresh water

(esp of a sailor who has not sailed on the sea) unskilled or inexperienced

US small and little knowna freshwater school

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 freshwater

freshwater

[ frĕsh′wô′tər ]

Consisting of or living in water that is not salty.