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FRENCH · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

eau.

water, a liquid that is transparent, colorless, odorless, and tasteless in its pure form, the primary constituent of lakes, rivers, seas, and oceans

3 characters1 syllables approx.Français language

Meaning & usage

noun/o/
  1. water, a liquid that is transparent, colorless, odorless, and tasteless in its pure form, the primary constituent of lakes, rivers, seas, and oceans

    feminine
    Il buvait un verre d’eau fraîche.
    L’eau de mer et l’eau de rivière n’ont pas la même teneur en sel et n’abritent donc pas les mêmes poissons.
  2. In particular, rain

    feminine
    Si le vent dure, nous aurons de l’eau.
  3. the chemical compound with molecular formula H₂O existing in the form of ice, liquid water or steam

    feminine
    L’eau se durcit par le froid et se vaporise par la chaleur.
  4. Natural liquid quantities or expanses

    feminine
    Le soir, ils se baignaient dans les eaux du lac Titicaca.
  5. Fluids such as sweat, formed and found in the body of man or animal

    feminine
    Les vésicatoires font des ampoules pleines d’eau.
    L’eau m'en vint à la bouche.
Where this word comes from

Inherited from Middle French eau, eaue, from Old French ewe, euwe, egua (“water”), from Latin aqua (“water”), from Proto-Indo-European *h₂ekʷeh₂ (“water, flowing water”), related to Frankish *ahu ~ ahwā (“stream, water”). See also English ea (“watercourse, river”). Cognates See also Angevin ave, eive, ève, ieau, Aragonese augua, Aromanian apã, Asturian agua, Bourbonnais-Berrichon aïe, aigue, Bourguignon eâ, Burgundian eai, Catalan aigua, Champenois aive, ève, Corsican acqua, Franc-Comtois âve, Franco-Provençal aigva, égoua, éva, Friulian aghe, Galician auga, Gallo aèv, ève, iao, iau, Istro-Romanian åpe, Italian acqua, Ligurian ægoa, ægua, Lombard acqua, agua, aqua, Lorrain aoue, Megleno-Romanian apu, Neapolitan acqua, Norman iâo, Occitan aiga, aigue, Old English ēa (“flowing water, stream, river”), Orléanais iau, Picard iau, ieau, Piedmontese aqua, eva, Poitevin-Saintongeais ève, Portuguese água, Romanian apă, Sardinian abba, Sicilian acqua, eva, Spanish agua, Venetan acua, Walloon aiwe.

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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.