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seawater

seawater

41 1.0
Water from the sea that contains salt
  • noun
  • /ˈsiːˌwɔːtər/
  • Specialized
translation icon : agua de mar
  • Drinking seawater can cause dehydration due to its high salt content.
  • freshwater and seawater
  • seawater salinity
  • salt content of seawater

That is because seawater is not pure water.

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Examples

  • You can see these ponds where people are evaporating seawater to make salt, OK?

  • There is a huge amount of uranium in seawater, but it's very dilute.

  • How much seawater did you drink?

  • That is because seawater is not pure water.

  • Take the first reading from the seawater adjacent to the study area.

    Academic text (1995)
  • Splash some seawater on your head, let the breeze cool you down.

  • Seawater from the bay fills this room.

  • Consuming enough seawater without any freshwater can lead to salt poisoning.

  • The use of seawater for cooling indicates that all freshwater supplies have have been lost.

  • Almost all sedimentary basins all over the world are full of ancient seawater, massive amounts of it.

Synonyms

saltwater
vsseawater
33 1.0

Water that has a lot of salt, like the sea

is specifically the water from seas or oceans with dissolved salts
brine
vsseawater
17 3.6

Very salty water used to preserve food, like pickles

is less extremely salty and denotes ordinary sea or ocean water

How Salty

brine
17 3.6
seawater
  • Specialized
41 1.0
fresh water
41 1.0

Surface Forms

seawater singular
seawaters plural

Morphology

seawater = sea + water (transparent) = sea + water

A straightforward compound whose meaning ('water from the sea') follows directly from its components.

Etymology

Seawater is simply the two English words sea and water put together, meaning 'water of the sea'. Think of a bottle of ocean water — that is seawater, so it is often 'salty'.