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

Instead, the sharks move constantly through the water column to hunt, the department said. —Irene Wright july 8, Miami Herald, 8 July 2025

Instead of floating away with the whims of the water column, the microbes that feed on the methane attach themselves to sea animals to remain among the bubbles. —Cnn.com Wire Service, Mercury News, 18 June 2025

As such, the belemnite body parts were thought to be floating in the lagoon's water column for some time before a Tharsis individual made its deadly choice. —New Atlas, 13 July 2025

But the truth is these fish will travel great distances up into the water column to chase a meal. —Joe Cermele, Outdoor Life, 26 Mar. 2025

Word History

First Known Use

1845, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Rhymes for water column

• collum
• sholom
• slalom
• solemn