water down
[ˈwɔːtə(ɹ) ˈdaʊ̯n]
The verdict
“water down” is uncommon German (outside the top frequency list), classed as a verb. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- Unranked
- below top-frequency German
- 10
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - zu einem Getränk oder einer Flüssigkeit Wasser hinzugeben; verwässern, verdünnen, panschen
Corpus desk
Index DE-water-down · water down · German
water down · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
- LEN-MEGA 10 letters
- VOW-3 3 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-THIN "W" thin
- PHOTO-UNK Peer pending
Desk codes from Wiktionary headword shape, FrequencyWords rank tier, confusable-pair count, generated misspelling depth, letter-cohort book size, and photo-finish peer. Not a difficulty grade.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | water down |
| Language | German |
| Part of speech | Verb |
| IPA | [ˈwɔːtə(ɹ) ˈdaʊ̯n] |
| Letters | 10 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Langschwanz-Rang von „water down“ im Deutschen
Rare enough to double-check
water down is uncommon German outside the top frequency list, classed as averb, transcribed [ˈwɔːtə(ɹ) ˈdaʊ̯n]. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 2 senses are on record.
No misspelling variants are generated for water down in our index, since its letter sequence doesn't invite the usual edit-distance slips. No close-neighbour confusable shows up for this headword in our dataset, which usually means its spelling is distinct enough that readers don't reach for a similar-looking word instead.
This entry carries no recorded etymology, so its spelling is best explained by sound-to-letter mapping rather than etymology. The correct German form is water down, spelled W-A-T-E-R- -D-O-W-N.
Definition
- 1zu einem Getränk oder einer Flüssigkeit Wasser hinzugeben; verwässern, verdünnen, panschen
- 2die Deutlichkeit einer Aussage, einem Artikel, einer Rede, einem Gesetz, etc., reduzieren oder mäßigen (häufig durch Weglassen von Teilen oder Umformulieren); abschwächen, abmildern, verwässern
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how water down appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
Allegations are flying around the web, news sites and social media that Anheuser-Busch InBev is watering down Budweiser in the US.
A total of 1,176 cancer patients in Ontario and New Brunswick received chemotherapy cocktails that were watered down, experts say.
Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.