aquavit
/ˌækwəˈviːt/noun
aquavit is a noun meaning “A Scandinavian liquor distilled from potato or grain mash to about 40% ABV and typically flavored with anise, although caraway seeds, fennel, dill…” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). It is spelled A-Q-U-A-V-I-T, and it appears about once in every 19 million words in written English (wordfreq, 2021 data). The plural of aquavit is aquavits.
What does aquavit mean?
noun
- 1
A Scandinavian liquor distilled from potato or grain mash to about 40% ABV and typically flavored with anise, although caraway seeds, fennel, dill, and other spices and herbs are also used.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
How do you pronounce aquavit?
- /ˌækwəˈviːt/
- /ˌɑkwəˈviːt/
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: LL-Q1860_(eng)-Wodencafe-aquavit.wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Forms of aquavit
- aquavits plural
- akvavit
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
How common is aquavit?
Aquavit appears about once in every 19 million words in written English, the 133,440th most frequent word form in the list.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
Aquavit in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
In the sense Scandinavian liquor:
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.
Where does aquavit come from?
From Swedish and Danish akvavit and Norwegian akevitt, from Medieval Latin aqua vitae (“water of life”). Doublet of aqua vitae and akvavit. Compare eau de vie, whisky, whiskey, and water of life from the same source.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).