watershed
Americannoun
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watersheds
plural
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Chiefly British. the ridge or crest line dividing two drainage areas; water parting; divide.
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the region or area drained by a river, stream, etc.; drainage area.
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Architecture. wash.
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an important point of division or transition between two phases, conditions, etc..
The treaty to ban war in space may prove to be one of history's great watersheds.
adjective
noun
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the dividing line between two adjacent river systems, such as a ridge
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an important period or factor that serves as a dividing line
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A continuous ridge of high ground forming a divide between two different drainage basins or river systems.
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The region enclosed by such a divide and draining into a river, river system, or other body of water.
Discover More
By extension, a “watershed” is a critical point that serves as a dividing line: “The parties reached a watershed in the contract negotiations.”
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of watershed
Explanation
A watershed is a turning point, or historic moment. The day you got your braces off might have been a watershed moment in your life. Watershed is a geographical term, originally. The area that drains into a single river is the watershed for that river. Watershed can also mean a ridge, like that formed by a chain of mountains, which sends water to two different rivers on either side. It's from this meaning that watershed came to mean a turning point or dividing line in social life.
Vocabulary lists containing watershed
March: Book One
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100 SAT words Beginning with W,X,Y, and Z
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Physical Geography - Middle School
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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:
The company added it was "exploring opportunities" for solar energy and battery storage on site, and it would make use of "non-potable, brackish groundwater" which it said would avoid putting pressure on the watershed.
From Barron's ● Aug. 7, 2026
Jean Milburn, Anderson’s humorously matter-of-fact sex therapist from the series “Sex Education,” represented a watershed beginning in 2019.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 6, 2026
That’s why Amazon’s $25 billion bond deal last week might be a watershed moment for the market.
From MarketWatch ● Jul. 13, 2026
She called Jack and Sarah's fight for the truth "a watershed moment" and "the patient safety catalyst for the Nottingham maternity review".
From BBC ● Jun. 24, 2026
The Chicago meeting was the watershed moment in the atomic bomb project.
From "Big Science" by Michael Hiltzik
When exploring the watersheds east of Cuzco, Peru, he writes, Miller was “overawed by the tropical forest canopy stretching to infinity before him.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 17, 2026
Of these, 16 formed interconnected watersheds covering at least 100,000 square kilometers.
From Science Daily ● Dec. 31, 2025
Large watersheds are far more common on Earth than on Mars.
From Science Daily ● Dec. 31, 2025
As the ashes settle, the region faces an invisible threat beneath the charred remains: compromised soil structures, contaminated watersheds and ecosystems stripped of their natural defenses — wounds that will bleed for years to come.
From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 19, 2025
Such places, the watersheds of the great coniferous forests of spruce and balsam, of hemlock and pine, provide the kind of spawning grounds that salmon must have in order to survive.
From "Silent Spring" by Rachel Carson
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.
