irrigation

American  

[ir-i-gey-shuhn] / ˌɪr ɪˈgeɪ ʃən /

noun

irrigations plural

1. the artificial application of water to land to assist in the production of crops.

2. Medicine/Medical. the flushing or washing out of anything with water or other liquid.

3. the state of being irrigated.

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irrigation Cultural  

1. Artificial provision of water to sustain growing plants.

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Irrigation accounts for the greatest part of water usage in the western United States.

Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• nonirrigation
  noun
• overirrigation
  noun
• preirrigation
  noun
• reirrigation
  noun
• irrigational
  adjective
• preirrigational
  adjective
• proirrigation
  adjective

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• irrigations
  plural

Etymology

Origin of irrigation

First recorded in 1605–15, irrigation is from the Latin word irrigātiōn- (stem of irrigātiō ). See irrigate, -ion

Explanation

Irrigation is the watering of land to make it ready for agriculture. If you want to start a strawberry farm in the desert, irrigation will be necessary. Irrigation comes from the Latin for "moist" or "wet," but it means the purposeful wetting of something. We wouldn’t really say that a storm provides irrigation (unless we were poetically trying to personify the storm). Irrigation systems are often complex combinations of canals, channels, and hoses. The word irrigation is also used in medicine to describe the process of washing out a wound before dressing it.

Example Sentences

After a government irrigation canal next to his farm dried up recently just before this year’s rice-sowing season, he decided to sow corn instead.

From The Wall Street Journal • Jul. 7, 2026

Nearly half of the country's net sown farmland has no assured irrigation and depends largely on rainfall, making the timing and spread of the monsoon critical for millions of farmers.

From BBC • Jul. 1, 2026

Salt buildup in farmland is becoming an increasingly serious problem because of climate change, irrigation practices, and rising sea levels.

From Science Daily • Jun. 29, 2026

Three years later, after losing so many plants, she decided to add an irrigation system.

From Los Angeles Times • Jun. 10, 2026

They organized work forces to construct large irrigation systems for agriculture and to enclose large ponds for fish production.

From "Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies" by Jared M. Diamond