high-water mark
"high-water-mark" is a 13-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“high-water mark” is uncommon English (outside the top frequency list), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- Unranked
- below top-frequency English
- 15
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - A mark, such as a line of seaweed, showing the highest level reached by a body of water.
Corpus desk
Index EN-high-water-mark · high-water mark · English
high-water mark · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
- LEN-MEGA 15 letters
- VOW-4 4 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-THIN "H" thin
- PHOTO-UNK Peer pending
Read with this headword: Spelling guide for this pattern
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 | high-water mark |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| Letters | 15 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “high-water mark” sits in English frequency
Rare enough to double-check
high-water mark is uncommon English outside the top frequency list, classed as anoun. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 2 senses are on record.
The misspelling generator found no plausible variants for high-water mark, typically a sign the spelling maps closely to how the word sounds. Our confusable-pair dataset has no match for it, since nothing in our dataset looks or sounds close enough to cause mix-ups.
This entry carries no recorded etymology, so its spelling pattern is best understood through pronunciation rather than a traceable origin. The correct English form is high-water mark, spelled H-I-G-H---W-A-T-E-R- -M-A-R-K.
Definition
- 1A mark, such as a line of seaweed, showing the highest level reached by a body of water.
- 2The peak, apex or acme of something; the maximum level; the furthest or highest point.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how high-water mark appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
This imposing structure, which not only carries the single track branch line but also the gas main supplying the Forest of Dean area, cost £200,000 when it was built in 1879, and at its highest point is 70ft above the high-water mark.
Madocks built his model town on land partly reclaimed from the sea, and was justifiably proud of the fact that it stood well below what was still the official high-water mark. Until then, the surrounding area was largely marshland.
This word in other languages
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.
PlainSpell is rendered directly from structured Wiktionary extracts and open word-frequency lists, no number is typed in by an editor. See our editorial standards & corrections policy, the methodology behind these numbers, or report a data error. Data current as of September 3, 2026. Primary sources: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) and FrequencyWords.
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Data Source
Wiktionary (via kaikki.org), licensed under CC BY-SA & GFDL. Word ordering uses an open word-frequency list; misspelling variants are generated by edit-distance from the correct headword.