watermark

1 of 2

noun

wa·​ter·​mark ˈwȯ-tər-ˌmärk How to pronounce watermark (audio)
ˈwä-
1
: a mark indicating the height to which water has risen
2
: a marking in paper resulting from differences in thickness usually produced by pressure of a projecting design in the mold or on a processing roll and visible when the paper is held up to the light
also : the design of or the metal pattern producing the marking

watermark

2 of 2

verb

watermarked; watermarking; watermarks

transitive verb

1
: to mark (paper) with a watermark
2
: to impress (a given design) as a watermark

Examples of watermark in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web
Noun
Videos will also have a watermark to distinguish them from the real thing, but as my colleague Emilia David points out, watermarks aren’t a perfect solution. Emma Roth, The Verge, 13 Mar. 2024 Remarkably, the film remains a high watermark for digital effects, especially in light of the ropey-looking dinosaurs from the recent sequels. EW.com, 2 Mar. 2024 Adobe has proposed that companies like OpenAI and Microsoft use watermarks to aid police investigations into AI fakes. Ashley Belanger, Ars Technica, 5 Feb. 2024 Visible watermarks can be easily cropped or edited out. Gerrit De Vynck, Washington Post, 15 Jan. 2024 For a more immediate solution, the industry could adopt maximally indelible watermarks—meaning watermarks that are as difficult to remove as possible. David Evan Harris, IEEE Spectrum, 4 Mar. 2024 Digital watermarks are embedded into the pixels of the image when it's created. Emily Dreibelbis, PCMAG, 1 Feb. 2024 News publishers including the New York Times, the Associated Press, and Reuters have all committed to the initiative as well, though images on their websites don’t display the Content Credentials watermark or metadata. Rachyl Jones, Fortune, 31 Jan. 2024 Part of the watermark visible in news video reports from the time can be seen in the post's video. Andre Byik, USA TODAY, 30 Jan. 2024
Verb
This sweeping mandate gives many key actors homework: industry leaders must provide insight into the inner workings of their most powerful systems and watermark their products to help support information integrity. Alondra Nelson, Foreign Affairs, 12 Jan. 2024 Fox along with Polygon Labs also this week unveiled a new blockchain protocol for media companies to watermark their content as authentic to help consumers know what’s fake and what’s real. Sage Lazzaro, Fortune, 11 Jan. 2024 What’s more, the companies who steer the future of Unicode—the Unicode Consortium—are many of the same tech giants at the core of generative AI, and three of them just promised to watermark AI content. WIRED, 27 July 2023 Currently, the ability to watermark a data set can be used by bad actors to cause harm. IEEE Spectrum, 21 Apr. 2023 Some watermark their composites with original logos. Fawnia Soo Hoo, refinery29.com, 24 Aug. 2021 Artists who are concerned about digital piracy should watermark their photos. arkansasonline.com, 26 Mar. 2021 Bluitt has tried to watermark her photos, but they are stolen anyway. Keith Bierygolick, The Enquirer, 16 Nov. 2020 There are even mobile apps like eZy Watermark (iOS, Android) that will watermark your smartphone photos. Harry Guinness, Popular Science, 15 Jan. 2020

These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'watermark.' 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

Noun

1577, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Verb

circa 1800, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Time Traveler
The first known use of watermark was in 1577

Dictionary Entries Near watermark

Cite this Entry

“Watermark.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/watermark. Accessed 28 Mar. 2024.

Kids Definition

watermark

1 of 2 noun
wa·​ter·​mark ˈwȯt-ər-ˌmärk How to pronounce watermark (audio)
ˈwät-
1
: a mark that shows the height to which water has risen
2
: a mark (as the maker's name or trademark) made in paper during manufacture and visible when the paper is held up to the light

watermark

2 of 2 verb
: to mark with a watermark

More from Merriam-Webster on watermark

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