Water line or waterline?
water line is a noun meaning “The outline of a horizontal section of a vessel, as when floating in the water”; waterline is a noun meaning “A line formed by the surface of the water on the hull of a ship when she is…”. water line is written as two words and waterline as one word; they are used differently.
What is the difference between water line and waterline?
| water line | waterline | |
|---|---|---|
| Part of speech | noun | noun |
| Meaning | The outline of a horizontal section of a vessel, as when floating in the water Any one of certain lines of a vessel, model, or plan, parallel with the surface of the water at various heights from the keel. In a half-breadth plan, the… | A line formed by the surface of the water on the hull of a ship when she is afloat; any of a series of short lines marked on the hull to show where the… A horizontal line indicating the shape of an airfoil |
| Example | none recorded | Near-synonym: water's edge |
| Forms | water-lines | waterlines |
| Pronunciation | not recorded | /ˈwɔːtə(ɹ)laɪn/ |
| In writing | not counted (the list counts single words) | about once in every 2 million words |
Sources: water line and waterline 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 water line and waterline
water line
- 1
The outline of a horizontal section of a vessel, as when floating in the water
- 2
Alternative form of water line
- 3
Any one of certain lines of a vessel, model, or plan, parallel with the surface of the water at various heights from the keel. In a half-breadth plan, the water lines are outward curves showing the…
- 4
Any one of several lines marked upon the outside of a vessel, corresponding with the surface of the water when she is afloat on an even keel. The lowest line indicates the vessel's proper submergence…
- 5
The line corresponding to the surface of the water touching any submerged object or body
- 6
The level at which water meets land along the shore of a body of water
- 7
Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see water, line
waterline
- 1
A line formed by the surface of the water on the hull of a ship when she is afloat; any of a series of short lines marked on the hull to show where the waterline would be under different loadings
- 2
A horizontal line indicating the shape of an airfoil
- 3
A line showing where the water has been
- 4
The line formed by where the water level of a body of water currently is: where the water's surface currently meets the bank; it may move higher or lower depending on the weather, tide, or season
Near-synonym: water's edge
- 5
The inner rim of the eyelid, just behind the lash line; primarily used in reference to the application of eyeliner
- 6
A water pipeline
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, water line or waterline?
water line is a phrase, which the list of single words does not count; waterline about once in every 2 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 water line vs waterline?
“water line vs waterline” is searched about 50 times a month on Google and 10 on Bing in the United States. Google counts close variants of a query together (“waterline vs water line”, “water line or waterline”).
Sources: Google Ads keyword data through DataForSEO and Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, the average month from September 2025 to August 2026.