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When the word brackish first appeared in English in the 1500s, it simply meant "salty," as did its Dutch parent brak. (English speakers also adopted the synonymous brack from the same source but it gets very little use.) Then, as now, brackish was used to describe water that was a mixture of saltwater and freshwater, such as one encounters where a river meets the sea. Since that time, however, brackish has developed the additional meanings of "unpalatable" and "repulsive," presumably because of the oozy, mucky, and sometimes stinky (or stinkyish, if you prefer)—not just salty—qualities of coastal estuaries and swamps.
Examples of brackish in a Sentence
Brandi D. Addison, Austin American Statesman, 20 June 2025
The tunnel would siphon relatively fresh Sacramento River water at the north end of the delta and deliver it to facilities at the more brackish south end.
—George Skelton, Los Angeles Times, 9 June 2025
Targeting contaminants The inspiration for this work was the fact that a lot of industrial contamination contains a mixture of toxic organic molecules, but is found in brackish or salty water.
—ArsTechnica, 7 May 2025
The process, which takes place over millions of years, creates brackish lagoons filled with lithium-rich waters.
—Nidhi Sharma, NBC news, 31 Mar. 2025
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Cite this Entry
“Brackish.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/brackish. Accessed 31 Jul. 2025.
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brackish
adjective
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