open water

noun

plural open waters

: water that is clear of obstacles to passage or view : water that is open (see open entry 1 sense 7a)

The word marsh conjures up a mental picture of a soggy, flat area filled with cattails and other herbaceous vegetation, with ducks sitting on patches of open water.

—Robert H. Mohlenbrock

often, specifically : water that is free of ice

When the river froze in the fall, a mile of open water had been left between two mighty jams.

—Jack London

Polynyas were areas of persistent open water, found throughout the circumpolar arctic, places kept ice-free by currents and wind patterns.

—David R. Masiel

Because the penguins feed in the ocean, they typically set up colonies near open water and must establish new nests when the coastline becomes covered in … ice.

—Science News

Examples of open water in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

The crossing, likely carried out in dugout canoes without sails, would have been harrowing: a 60-mile (100 km) passage over open water at a grueling pace of about 2 miles per hour. —Saul Elbein, The Hill, 9 Apr. 2025

Up the coast in Ventura County on March 21, a surfer near Oxnard, was bitten by a sea lion in open water. —Cnn.com Wire Service, Mercury News, 7 Apr. 2025

Sunfish reside in open waters across the globe in tropical and temperate oceans and feed on mainly jellies and other gelatinous zooplankton like salps, squid, fish, crustaceans and algae. —Amaris Encinas, USA Today, 5 Apr. 2025

Whale watching is only allowed in open water and prohibited in passes, bays and lagoons. —Emese MacZko, Forbes.com, 31 Mar. 2025

Word History

First Known Use

1625, in the meaning defined above

Rhymes for open water

• annunciator
• imprimatur
• underwater
• backwater
• bathwater
• blackwater
• breakwater
• deepwater
• edgewater
• feedwater
• floodwater
• freshwater