water column

noun

plural water columns

1

: a vertical expanse of water stretching between the surface and the floor of a body of water

Shallow feeders, sea lions work the top 600 feet of the water column for hake, rock-fish, herring, sardines … and squid, but opportunistically capturing anything that happens by.

—Downs Matthews

Only a few animals of the water column above would have died and settled into the sediments below during the short time when the mudslide was coalescing into a layer of sediment in the stagnant basin.

—Stephen Jay Gould

2

: a vertical pipe with valves and spout for delivering water to a locomotive tender

Examples of water column in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

Man o’ wars use a balloon-like float to move up and down in the water column, according to NOAA, and their tentacles can grow an average of 30 feet long, with some man o’ wars reaching as long as 100 feet. —Irene Wright, Miami Herald, 20 June 2025

Picture a volcanic eruption – not of lava, but of fine, murky sediments expanding throughout the water column, affecting everything in its path. —Alexus Cazares-Nuesser, The Conversation, 25 Mar. 2025

In the picturesque waters of the Maldives, a diver in 2016 noticed something in the water column. —Irene Wright, Miami Herald, 27 Mar. 2025

Sediment plumes in the water column could harm these animals. —Alexus Cazares-Nuesser, The Conversation, 25 Mar. 2025

Word History

First Known Use

1845, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Rhymes for water column

• collum
• sholom
• slalom
• solemn