jetsam

American  

[jet-suhm] / ˈdʒɛt səm /

Or jetsom

noun

1. goods cast overboard deliberately, as to lighten a vessel or improve its stability in an emergency, which sink where jettisoned or are washed ashore.

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jetsam British  

/ ˈdʒɛtsəm /

noun

1. that portion of the equipment or cargo of a vessel thrown overboard to lighten her, as during a storm Compare flotsam lagan

2. another word for flotsam

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jetsam Idioms  

1. see flotsam and jetsam.

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Etymology

Origin of jetsam

1560–70; alteration of jetson, syncopated variant of jettison

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Explanation

Jetsam is debris floating around the water that has been dumped from a sinking ship. Sometimes beachcombers find jetsam washed up on shore. You often see the phrase "flotsam and jetsam" because both words refer to wreckage from a ship, but how the stuff got there is the difference. Flotsam is from a shipwreck, and jetsam is thrown off the ship to prevent it from sinking. People often use jetsam to mean any discarded objects, not just from the ocean.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

jetsam

When this extraterrestrial jetsam occasionally plunges through the atmosphere, it poses a risk to life, infrastructure and the environment.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jan. 23, 2026

While the garden is rooted in local culture, built bit by bit from the flotsam and jetsam of Los Angeles locations and plants native to the ecology, the programming is more global in approach.

From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 4, 2025

But when Mr. Tunnell went to lift it up, the leg turned out to be a prosthetic, one of the many items of flotsam and jetsam that come ashore along the Texas coastline each year.

From New York Times ● May 20, 2023

They will tell you he was the flotsam and jetsam of a sport which was becoming unmoored from reality.

From BBC ● Apr. 3, 2023

Whether Penelope was better described as flotsam or jetsam at this point was hard to say.

From "The Long-Lost Home" by Maryrose Wood

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