water under the bridge
"water-under-the-bridge" is a 19-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“water under the bridge” is uncommon English (outside the top frequency list), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- Unranked
- below top-frequency English
- 22
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Something in the past that cannot be controlled or undone, but must be accepted, forgiven, or forgotten.
Corpus desk
Index EN-water-under-the-bridge · water under the bridge · English
water under the bridge · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
- LEN-MEGA 22 letters
- VOW-7 7 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-THIN "W" 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 | water under the bridge |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| Letters | 22 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Long-tail rank of “water under the bridge” in English
Rare enough to double-check
water under the bridge is uncommon English outside the top frequency list, classed as anoun. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "Something in the past that cannot be controlled or undone, but must be accepted, forgiven, or forgotten.".
water under the bridge doesn't appear in our generated misspelling index, a sign its spelling follows regular English conventions. It is not paired with a close-neighbour confusable in our dataset, which typically means the spelling is too distinctive to be mistaken for another word.
Wiktionary doesn't record an etymology for this headword, so its spelling pattern is best understood through pronunciation rather than a traceable origin. The correct English form is water under the bridge, spelled W-A-T-E-R- -U-N-D-E-R- -T-H-E- -B-R-I-D-G-E.
Definition
- 1Something in the past that cannot be controlled or undone, but must be accepted, forgiven, or forgotten.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how water under the bridge appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
They agreed that their old disputes were water under the bridge and decided to make a fresh start.
Ilsa: It's been a long time. Sam: Yes, ma'am. A lot of water under the bridge.
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.