water column

noun

plural water columns

1

: a vertical expanse of water stretching between the surface and the floor of a body of water

Shallow feeders, sea lions work the top 600 feet of the water column for hake, rock-fish, herring, sardines … and squid, but opportunistically capturing anything that happens by.

—Downs Matthews

Only a few animals of the water column above would have died and settled into the sediments below during the short time when the mudslide was coalescing into a layer of sediment in the stagnant basin.

—Stephen Jay Gould

2

: a vertical pipe with valves and spout for delivering water to a locomotive tender

Examples of water column in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

But when earthquakes rupture the crust beneath the Southern Ocean, those hydrothermal systems briefly intensify, releasing pulses of iron that are mixed upward through the water column. —New Atlas, 22 Jan. 2026

That rating comes from the hydrostatic head pressure test—also known as the water column test—which assesses how waterproof a fabric is by using high pressure to push water through. —Adam Trenkamp, Outside, 27 Dec. 2025

The snowboard suit is crafted from a waterproof technical fabric that can withstand up to 20,000 mm of water column pressure, combined with high breathability and coated with the special anti-scratch DWR treatment. —Martino Carrera, Footwear News, 15 Dec. 2025

In deep temperate lakes, this creates stratification in the water column: Lighter, warmer water floats on top, and colder, denser water sinks below. —Rachel Nuwer, Quanta Magazine, 14 Nov. 2025

Word History

First Known Use

1845, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Rhymes for water column

• collum
• sholom
• slalom
• solemn