Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Email
Answers.com

brackish

 
(brăk'ĭsh) pronunciation
adj.
  1. Having a somewhat salty taste, especially from containing a mixture of seawater and fresh water: "You could cut the brackish winds with a knife/Here in Nantucket" (Robert Lowell).
  2. Distasteful; unpalatable: a thin, brackish gruel.

[From Dutch brak.]

brackishness brack'ish·ness n.

Search unanswered questions...
Enter a question here...
Search: All sources Community Q&A Reference topics

adj

Definition: slightly salty
Antonyms: fresh

Random House Word Menu:

categories related to 'brackish'

Top
Random House Word Menu by Stephen Glazier
For a list of words related to brackish, see:
  • Tastes - brackish: (adj) having a slightly salty or briny flavor


Wikipedia on Answers.com:

Brackish water

Top
Water salinity based on dissolved salts in parts per thousand (ppt)
Fresh water Brackish water Saline water Brine
<0.5 0.5–30 30–50 >50

Brackish water is water that has more salinity than fresh water, but not as much as seawater. It may result from mixing of seawater with fresh water, as in estuaries, or it may occur in brackish fossil aquifers. The word comes from the Middle Dutch root "brak," meaning "salty". Certain human activities can produce brackish water, in particular certain civil engineering projects such as dikes and the flooding of coastal marshland to produce brackish water pools for freshwater prawn farming. Brackish water is also the primary waste product of the salinity gradient power process. Because brackish water is hostile to the growth of most terrestrial plant species, without appropriate management it is damaging to the environment (see article on shrimp farms).

Technically, brackish water contains between 0.5 and 30 grams of salt per litre—more often expressed as 0.5 to 30 parts per thousand (ppt or ‰). Thus, brackish covers a range of salinity regimes and is not considered a precisely defined condition. It is characteristic of many brackish surface waters that their salinity can vary considerably over space and/or time.

Contents

Notable brackish bodies of water (by type, in alphabetical order)

Brackish seas

Brackish water lakes

Map of Lake Chilka, India's largest lake, classified as a brackish water body

Lochs (Scottish)

Coastal lagoons, marshes, and deltas

Estuaries

See also

References

  1. ^ Seeliger, Ulrich; Björn Kjerfve (2001). Coastal Marine Ecosystems of Latin America. Springer. pp. 185–204. ISBN 978-3-540-67228-9. http://books.google.com/books?id=drF30PA45o8C&pg=PA185. 

Further reading


Translations:

Brackish

Top

Dansk (Danish)
adj. - brak

Nederlands (Dutch)
brak, onsmakelijk

Français (French)
adj. - saumâtre

Deutsch (German)
adj. - brackig

Ελληνική (Greek)
adj. - γλυφός, υφάλμυρος

Italiano (Italian)
salmastro

Português (Portuguese)
adj. - salobro, intragável

Русский (Russian)
солоноватый

Español (Spanish)
adj. - salobre

Svenska (Swedish)
adj. - bräckt (vatten)

中文(简体)(Chinese (Simplified))
有盐味的, 可厌的

中文(繁體)(Chinese (Traditional))
adj. - 有鹽味的, 可厭的

한국어 (Korean)
adj. - 약간 소금기가 있는, 맛없는, 불쾌한

日本語 (Japanese)
adj. - 塩気のある, まずい

العربيه (Arabic)
‏(صفه) ماء غير عذب, مج‏

עברית (Hebrew)
adj. - ‮מלוח מעט, מלחלח‬


 
 
Related topics:
bracky
terrapin (reptile)
brackishness

Related answers:
What is brackish water ecosystem? Read answer...
What is mean by desalination of brackish water? Read answer...
What kind of fish are in brackish waters? Read answer...

Help us answer these:
What rhymes with brackish?
What is a brackish clam?
What are brackish soils?

Post a question - any question - to the WikiAnswers community:

 

Copyrights:

American Heritage Dictionary. The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition Copyright © 2007, 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Updated in 2009. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.  Read more
Answers Corporation Antonyms by Answers.com. © 1999-present by Answers Corporation. All rights reserved.  Read more
Random House Word Menu. © 2010 Write Brothers Inc. Word Menu is a registered trademark of the Estate of Stephen Glazier. Write Brothers Inc. All rights reserved.  Read more
 Rhymes. Oxford University Press. © 2006, 2007 All rights reserved.  Read more
Wikipedia on Answers.com. This article is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article Brackish water Read more
Translations. Copyright © 2007, WizCom Technologies Ltd. All rights reserved.  Read more

Follow us
Facebook Twitter
YouTube

Mentioned in

» More» More