Hydration

How to spell hydration

9 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce hydration

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does hydration mean?

1. nounThe process of providing or maintaining an adequate supply of water or fluid, in the body or in a chemical substance.

Hydration in a sentence

• The coach reminded the runners that good hydration improves their endurance.

• The nurse monitored the patient's hydration levels throughout the night.

Where does hydration come from?

Language of origin: Greek

This word traces back to the Greek hudor, meaning simply 'water', the same root that gives English a whole family of scientific terms such as hydrogen, hydraulic, and dehydrate. Chemists of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries built the verb 'hydrate' to describe combining a substance with water, and from that they formed 'hydration' as the noun naming the process. The crucial spelling clue lives in the Greek source: the 'y' stands where the original Greek upsilon sat, which is why it is hydration and never 'hidration'. From its narrow chemical beginnings the word broadened in everyday use during the twentieth century to mean keeping the body supplied with enough fluid, especially in sport and medicine. So a term that began in the laboratory now appears on water bottles and fitness apps, while still carrying its ancient meaning of 'water' at its core.

How the word is built

• hydr- (from Greek hudor: water)
• -ate (verb-forming)
• -ion (noun of process)