Watery

How to spell watery

6 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce watery

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does watery mean?

1. adjectiveContaining, resembling, or diluted with water, and so thin, weak, or pale.

Watery in a sentence

• The canteen served a thin, watery soup that tasted of nothing.

• Cold winds left her with red, watery eyes by the time she reached the office.

Where does watery come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

This is a thoroughly native English word, built from the Old English noun wæter, meaning the familiar liquid, plus the productive adjective ending -ig (the ancestor of modern -y, meaning 'full of' or 'like'). The root wæter goes back to a common Germanic source, which is why it has close cousins such as Dutch water and German Wasser, and a more distant relation in the Latin and Greek words behind 'hydro' terms. By Middle English the spelling had settled toward 'watery', and the meaning broadened from simply 'consisting of water' to describe anything thin, weak, or pale as if diluted, such as a watery soup or a watery winter sun. The single t and the -ery ending are the only mild traps: the word keeps just one t because the base 'water' has one, and the e of -ery is a faint, easily dropped vowel.

How the word is built

• water (the liquid)
• -y (adjective suffix meaning 'full of' or 'resembling')