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ENGLISH · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

waterworks.

The water supply system of a district, town, city, or other place, including reservoirs, pipes, and pumps.

10 characters3 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

noun/ˈwɔːtəˌwəːks/Received-Pronunciation/ˈwɔtɚˌwɚks/General-American[-ɾɚ-]General-American
  1. The water supply system of a district, town, city, or other place, including reservoirs, pipes, and pumps.

  2. Any single facility, such as a filtration plant or pumping station, within such a system.

    She is employed by a waterworks at the outskirts of the city.
  3. Often in the form turn on the waterworks: crying or tears, especially in a way that is considered manipulative or over-emotional.

    figuratively · informal
    She turned on the waterworks when we told her the old man was dead, but she was asking questions about the will soon enough.
  4. Rain.

    figuratively · informal
  5. The genitourinary system.

    UK · euphemistic · figuratively
  6. A hydraulic apparatus by which a supply of water is furnished for ornamental purposes; also, an ornamental fountain or waterfall.

    historical
  7. Engineering works relating to the conveyance and flow of fluids (principally water), such as the collection and distribution of water, drainage, irrigation, etc.

    archaic
Where this word comes from

From water + works (“machine, mechanism; factory or factories”).

noun/ˈwɔːtəˌwəːks/Received-Pronunciation/ˈwɔtɚˌwɚks/General-American[-ɾɚ-]General-American
  1. plural of waterwork

    form-of · plural
Where this word comes from

See the etymology of the corresponding lemma form.

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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.

Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.