watershed
Americannoun
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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.”
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.
The Watershed has gender neutral toilets, which won a Loo of the Year award in 2024.
From BBC • May 21, 2026
“We are forcing the fish to be in places where they never were historically,” said Carson Jeffres, a senior researcher at the UC Davis Center for Watershed Sciences.
From Los Angeles Times • Apr. 4, 2026
Leana Hosea is an environmental investigative journalist and a founder of non-profit Watershed, which investigates freshwater and marine environment issues.
From BBC • Jul. 27, 2025
Significantly, by analyzing specimens from the Skeena Watershed, Armstrong's team identified unique hazelnut clusters that are only found at the origin place of the Gitxsan, Ts'msyen, and Nisga'a peoples.
From Science Daily • Dec. 6, 2024
The principal land-use in the Big Blue Watershed is tilled crops, with wheat, sorghums, and corn being most important.
From Fishes of the Big Blue River Basin, Kansas by Minckley, W. L.
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.
