meltwater

American

[melt-waw-ter, -wot-er] / ˈmɛltˌwɔ tər, -ˌwɒt ər /

noun

water from melted snow or ice.

meltwater British

/ ˈmɛltˌwɔːtə /

noun

melted snow or ice

"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

Etymology

Origin of meltwater

First recorded in 1930–35; melt ¹ + water

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.

See Examples For:

meltwater

Scientists are examining possible warning signs, including evidence that the glacier accelerated in the weeks before the collapse, and a sudden increase in meltwater shortly beforehand.

From Barron's ● Sep. 4, 2026

"So you are going to get more landslides, debris flows, glacial meltwater, lake outbursts, glacier collapses, because climate warming ultimately destabilises these high mountain environments."

From BBC ● Aug. 27, 2026

The newly identified yeasts came from skin samples, meltwater inside the mummy, and stomach content samples.

From Science Daily ● Aug. 7, 2026

Looking ahead, projections under high greenhouse gas emission scenarios suggest that by the end of the century, the most intense meltwater anomalies could increase by as much as threefold.

From Science Daily ● May 4, 2026

Streams of meltwater rushed through furrows in the surface.

From "The Wild Robot Protects" by Peter Brown

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Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023