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seawater

nounB1+Occasional — familiar, but not everyday · #10,952 of 15,258leans written

Seawater is the salty water of the ocean. A bucket of seawater, seawater in the tank, taste of seawater.

It is about three and a half per cent salt, which is what makes it undrinkable. Seawater freezes at about minus two degrees rather than at zero.

Joao Carlos Medau from Campinas, Brazil · CC BY 2.0

Definitions of seawater

  1. 1nounseawaterThe salty water of the ocean.B1+

    “The seawater got into the engine and finished it.”

seawater is water.

Where it comes from

Old English saewaeter is simply sea plus water, with the same compound across the Germanic languages.

  1. Old English

    sǣwæter — seawater

  2. Middle English

    seewater

  3. English, today

    seawater

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

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practise this word

seawater in the wild

  • On average, seawater in the world's oceans has a salinity of about 3.5%.

    Seawater

  • The freezing point of seawater decreases as salt concentration increases.

    Seawater

  • The salt pans are shallow and expansive, allowing sunlight to penetrate and reach the seawater.

    Salt evaporation pond

  • Artificial seawater is also known as synthetic seawater and substitute ocean water.

    Artificial seawater

  • The chemical conditions of the seawater must be notably high in magnesium content relative to calcium (high Mg/Ca ratio) for an aragonite sea to form.

    Aragonite sea

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From Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. These sentences were written by other people about their own subjects; they are here to show the word at work, not as anybody’s opinion.