open water

noun

plural open waters

: water that is clear of obstacles to passage or view : water that is open (see open entry 1 sense 7a)

The word marsh conjures up a mental picture of a soggy, flat area filled with cattails and other herbaceous vegetation, with ducks sitting on patches of open water.

—Robert H. Mohlenbrock

often, specifically : water that is free of ice

When the river froze in the fall, a mile of open water had been left between two mighty jams.

—Jack London

Polynyas were areas of persistent open water, found throughout the circumpolar arctic, places kept ice-free by currents and wind patterns.

—David R. Masiel

Because the penguins feed in the ocean, they typically set up colonies near open water and must establish new nests when the coastline becomes covered in … ice.

—Science News

Examples of open water in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

The experiment was conducted in eight meters of open water at a research site in the Mediterranean Sea where the local wild fish are habituated to the presence of divers. —Grrlscientist, Forbes, 25 Feb. 2025

Once the ship is in the open waters of the Atlantic, just one of the tugs will be needed to tow it slowly southward. —Isabelle Taft, New York Times, 19 Feb. 2025

Their final conflict goes down on Silver’s yacht in the middle of the open water, as Silver ridicules Kreese for his complicated relationship with Johnny. —Nick Caruso, TVLine, 15 Feb. 2025

Those are caused when the atmosphere picks up moisture from open water and then dumps it back on land in the form of snow. —Jeffrey Kluger, TIME, 7 Feb. 2025

Word History

First Known Use

1625, in the meaning defined above

Rhymes for open water

• annunciator
• imprimatur
• underwater
• backwater
• bathwater
• blackwater
• breakwater
• deepwater
• edgewater
• feedwater
• floodwater
• freshwater