English Reference
noun · adjective

seawater

n. · adj.
US /ˈsiˌwɑtɝ/ UK /sˈiːwɔːtɐ/ sea·wa·ter UK spelling seawaters

  1. 01 B1 Intermediate

    n.the salty water that makes up the seas and oceans.

    n.the saline water of a sea or ocean. Uncountable in its general sense.

    Simple

    After swimming in the ocean, his skin felt itchy from the dried seawater.

    In context

    The desalination plant was designed to process thousands of litres of seawater per hour to provide drinking water for the coastal city.

  2. 02 B2 Upper Intermediate Technical

    adj.describes something that is made of salty sea water or works with it.

    adj.consisting of, associated with, or designed for use with seawater. Non-gradable; functions as an attributive adjective.

    Simple

    The hotel has a large seawater swimming pool that overlooks the beach.

    In context

    Engineers had to select specific alloys for the seawater cooling system to prevent rapid corrosion from the high salt content.


From Middle English seewater, se water, from Old English sǣwæter (“seawater”), equivalent to sea + water. Cognate with Saterland Frisian Seewoater (“seawater”), West Frisian seewetter (“seawater”), Dutch zeewater (“seawater”), Icelandic sjóvatn (“seawater”).

Etymology adapted from Wiktionary, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.

This entry
Origin Old English sǣwæter
Level B1 · Intermediate
Frequency Occasional
Updated