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When the word brackish first appeared in English in the 1500s, it simply meant “salty,” as did its Dutch parent brac. 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.
Synonyms of brackish
Examples of brackish in a Sentence
Anna Zacharias, Condé Nast Traveler, 21 Jan. 2026
The species thrives in brackish water.
—Alasdair Pal, USA Today, 20 Jan. 2026
McNulty said the boy and his friends had been leaping off a popular six-meter (20 foot) rock into water turned brackish by heavy rain over the weekend.
—Lex Harvey, CNN Money, 19 Jan. 2026
In middle age, though, the only seaway Melville encountered was the brackish Hudson and his journeys consisted of tabulating the wool unloaded from Manchester, rum from Havana, and tea from Calcutta.
—Literary Hub, 14 Jan. 2026
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Cite this Entry
“Brackish.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/brackish. Accessed 4 Feb. 2026.
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brackish
adjective
