Fresh water or freshwater?
fresh water is a noun meaning “Water with a very low content of dissolved salt, as opposed to brackish water…”; freshwater is an adjective meaning “Living in fresh water”. Use fresh water as a noun and freshwater as an adjective. fresh water is written as two words and freshwater as one word; they are used differently.
What is the difference between fresh water and freshwater?
| fresh water | freshwater | |
|---|---|---|
| Part of speech | noun, adjective | adjective, noun |
| Meaning | Water with a very low content of dissolved salt, as opposed to brackish water or salt water | Living in fresh water Consisting of fresh water A body of fresh water |
| Example | none recorded | The trout is a freshwater fish |
| Pronunciation | not recorded | /ˈfɹɛʃˌwɔːtə(ɹ)/ /ˈfɹɛʃˌwɑtər/ /ˈfɹɛʃˌwɔtər/ |
| In writing | not counted (the list counts single words) | 3.3 times per million words |
Sources: fresh water and freshwater in the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0); written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
Every current meaning of fresh water and freshwater
fresh water
- 1
Water with a very low content of dissolved salt, as opposed to brackish water or salt water
- 2
Alternative form of freshwater
freshwater
- 1
Living in fresh water
The trout is a freshwater fish
- 2
A body of fresh water
- 3
Consisting of fresh water
Lake Baikal is the world's largest freshwater lake in terms of volume
- 4
Alternative form of fresh water
- 5
Unskilled as a seaman
- 6
USNeoclassical, in reference to the macroeconomics and economic departments near the Great Lakes
Source: the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0); obsolete, archaic, dialect and rare senses left out.
Which is more common, fresh water or freshwater?
fresh water is a phrase, which the list of single words does not count; freshwater 3.3 times per million words.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How many people search fresh water vs freshwater?
“fresh water vs freshwater” is searched about 20 times a month on Google and 10 on Bing in the United States. Google counts close variants of a query together (“freshwater vs fresh water”, “fresh water or freshwater”).
Sources: Google Ads keyword data through DataForSEO and Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, the average month from September 2025 to August 2026.