water down

verb

By · According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA) ·

"water-down" is a 9-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.

The verdict

“water down” is uncommon English (outside the top frequency list), classed as a verb. The kind of spelling people second-guess.

Unranked
below top-frequency English
10
letters

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - To dilute with water; to add water to.

Key facts for water down
PropertyValue
Headwordwater down
LanguageEnglish
Part of speechVerb
Letters10
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Where “water down” sits in English frequency

water down falls outside the top-100,000 ranked English words, the long-tail zone of technical, archaic, or low-frequency vocabulary, exactly where readers second-guess spellings most.

Beyond rank #100,000. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Rare enough to double-check

water down is uncommon English outside the top frequency list, classed as averb. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 4 senses are on record.

water down has no tracked misspelling variants, since its letter sequence doesn't invite the usual edit-distance slips. Our confusable-pair dataset has no match for it, a sign it's visually distinctive enough not to be mixed up with another word.

No explicit etymology string is stored for this entry, so its spelling is best read as a straightforward mapping from sound to letter. The correct English form is water down, spelled W-A-T-E-R- -D-O-W-N.

Definition

  1. 1
    To dilute with water; to add water to.
  2. 2
    To make weaker, less effective.
  3. 3
    To simplify or oversimplify; to make easier; to make less difficult.
  4. 4
    To make less restrictive; to make more lenient.

This word in other languages

diluir(Español)diluer(Français)verwässern(Deutsch)

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.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you spell "water down"?
"water down" is spelled W-A-T-E-R- -D-O-W-N.
What does "water down" mean?
As a verb, "water down" means: To dilute with water; to add water to.
What language does "water down" come from?
"water down" is a English word. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, and spelling data for this and other words across English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German on PlainSpell.
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Yes, PlainSpell is a completely free word reference. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, confusable pairs, homophones, and spelling corrections across 5 languages without any sign-up or subscription.

Using “water down”

The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.

  • The one correct English spelling is W-A-T-E-R- -D-O-W-N - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
  • Browse more English words and confusable pairs in the same reference. English words
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.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list