seepage

noun

seep·​age ˈsē-pij 

1

: the process of seeping : oozing

2

: a quantity of fluid that has seeped (as through porous material)

Example Sentences

Check for seepage in the basement.

Recent Examples on the Web

Then a leak reappeared in the same place that saw seepage during a dress rehearsal back in the spring. —Nicole Fallert, USA TODAY, 29 Aug. 2022

The drop has cost California a congressional seat and put us fourth in terms of net population seepage — behind only New York, Illinois and Louisiana. To add insult to injury, Texas and Florida experienced net gains of residents during this time, and some of them actually came from California. —Los Angeles Times, 20 Feb. 2023

Lead in the water: How some of America's water became too dangerous to drink Not only do some of the nutrients reach the groundwater through seepage, but high-volume irrigation pumping also causes a mix of nutrients from both the surface and other rock along the way. —Ginger Zee, ABC News, 19 Apr. 2023

Since 2020, Egypt has lined more than 4,500 km (2,800 miles) of irrigation channels, with plans to line a total of 20,000 km by mid-2024, according to its Irrigation Ministry, a project projected to save up to 5 billion cubic meters in water loss annually due to seepage. —Taylor Luck, The Christian Science Monitor, 9 Nov. 2022

The constant heat generated by the waste could alter rock formations where it's stored and allow water seepage, while future mining activities could compromise a nuclear waste site's integrity, said Ramana, who specializes in international security and nuclear energy. —Menelaos Hadjicostis, ajc, 10 Sep. 2022

While standing by the rain garden in front of Harris’ home, Howard certainly sounded like someone who has become very familiar with the subject, speaking knowledgeably about seepage and the installation of backflow valves to prevent contaminated and polluted water from flooding back into the home. —Scott Talley, Freep.com, 16 Oct. 2022

The tanks contain nearly 1.25 million tons of cooling-system water from the 2011 disaster and groundwater seepage over the years — equivalent to around 500 Olympic-size swimming pools — most of it still dangerously radioactive. —Washington Post, 6 Mar. 2021

Mark Howden, head of agricultural climate adaptation projects at CSIRO in Canberra, oversees projects to develop new farming systems that reduce water seepage and new crops bred with genetic traits suited to hotter, drier conditions and elevated carbon dioxide. —Linda Marsa, Discover Magazine, 25 Mar. 2012

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Word History

First Known Use

circa 1825, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Kids Definition

seepage

noun

seep·​age ˈsē-pij 

1

: the process of seeping

2

: a quantity of fluid that has seeped through something