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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
Cara Lynn Shultz, PEOPLE, 19 Sep. 2025
The other adapts to seawater or brackish water sources by including desalination.
—Aamir Khollam, Interesting Engineering, 16 Sep. 2025
Once settled, campers can follow the Shoreline Trail from camp to make a loop around Turtle Back Hill, a promontory that juts out into a brackish, intertidal salt marshlands.
—Don Sproul, Oc Register, 9 Sep. 2025
From June through September, the brackish waters of the the Indian River Lagoon are waiting to come aglow at night with bioluminescent marine plankton.
—Kelsey Glennon, Southern Living, 5 Sep. 2025
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Cite this Entry
“Brackish.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/brackish. Accessed 6 Oct. 2025.
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brackish
adjective
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