water table

noun

1
: a stringcourse or similar member when projecting so as to throw off water
2
: the upper limit of the portion of the ground wholly saturated with water

Examples of water table in a Sentence

Heavy rainfall has caused the water table to rise.
Recent Examples on the Web Excessive pumping lowers the water table and causes the overlying land to sink. Cnn.com, The Mercury News, 7 Mar. 2024 This water table is easy to clean and is a good option for kids who are 18 months and older. Laura Lu, Ms, Parents, 6 Mar. 2024 Each inch the land slumps towards the water table can make floods significantly, catastrophically worse. Mira Rojanasakul, New York Times, 14 Feb. 2024 Over the years, the minerals percolate through the soil to the water table and eventually get flushed into rivers and oceans. Dina Genkina, Ars Technica, 1 Feb. 2024 Even modest falls in water tables in the continent’s many shallow aquifers could dry up wells that sustain many of the 255 million people living in poverty above them, warns the World Bank. Fred Pearce, WIRED, 9 Mar. 2024 Locals fear their wells could fail if pumping increases The project has alarmed locals who have watched the water table drop in recent years from existing residential and agricultural pumping. Brandon Loomis, The Arizona Republic, 5 Feb. 2024 But despite their low profile, mosses, which Kimmerer has compared to forests in miniature, complete with canopies of single-cell-thick leaves and diverse populations of microscopic organisms, play an outsize role in our ecosystem, regulating water tables and soil temperature. Jenny Comita, New York Times, 21 Nov. 2023 By 2018, so much water had infiltrated the soil around Tigray’s Green Roads that the water table had risen around two meters, improving the productivity of adjacent farms by 35 percent. WIRED, 23 Dec. 2023

These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'water table.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

Word History

First Known Use

15th century, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Time Traveler
The first known use of water table was in the 15th century

Dictionary Entries Near water table

Cite this Entry

“Water table.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/water%20table. Accessed 28 Mar. 2024.

Kids Definition

water table

noun
: the upper limit of the portion of the ground completely soaked with water

More from Merriam-Webster on water table

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