waterborne
Americanadjective
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floating or moving on water; supported by water.
The ship was waterborne ten months after the keel was laid.
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transported by ship or boat.
waterborne commerce.
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communicated by water, especially drinking water.
waterborne diseases.
adjective
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floating or travelling on water
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(of a disease, etc) transported or transmitted by water
Etymology
Origin of waterborne
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.
Under the 1920 Jones Act, waterborne cargo between two U.S. points must travel on ships that are built, crewed, and owned by Americans.
From The Wall Street Journal • May 5, 2026
The annual monsoon season, typically between June and September, often brings heavy rains, triggering landslides, flash floods and waterborne diseases.
From Barron's • Nov. 26, 2025
Conceptualized as self-sufficient, self-governing, sea-bound communities, the vision for these waterborne cities was part libertarian utopia, part billionaire’s playground.
From Los Angeles Times • Mar. 28, 2025
Health experts, though, are sounding the alarm about the spread of waterborne diseases, after a 10-month-old baby was partially paralysed after contracting polio - the first registered case in Gaza for 25 years.
From BBC • Aug. 26, 2024
Almost a rumble now, a waterborne thunder that actually made the hull vibrate when he put his hand against it.
From "The Voyage Of The Frog" by Gary Paulsen
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.
