Meaning & use
stagnant water
Last updated
Meaning
noununcountable
Water that does not flow or move, and often becomes dirty and unhealthy.
Grammar: Uncountable: use 'some', 'the', or 'a pool of' before it, not 'a'.
Patterns
- a pool of stagnant water
- stagnant water collects
Mosquitoes breed in stagnant water, so empty old buckets after rain.
The ditch was full of stagnant water and smelled terrible.
Health workers warned people not to drink stagnant water from the pond.
Common combinations
- stagnant water collects
- Stagnant water collects in the old tires behind the shed.
- a pool of stagnant water
- A pool of stagnant water had formed near the drain.
- breed in stagnant water
- These insects breed in stagnant water.
- stagnant water smells
- The stagnant water smelled awful in the summer heat.
Synonyms and how they differ
- still water
- Means water that is not moving, but it does not suggest dirt or health danger; 'stagnant water' usually does.
- standing water
- Very close in meaning, often used in weather reports; 'stagnant water' more strongly suggests it has been sitting and gone bad.
Opposites
Word family
- stagnant adjective
- Not flowing or developing; also used of a situation that does not change.
- stagnate verb
- To stop moving or developing.
- stagnation noun
- The state of not flowing or not developing.
Commonly confused: stagnant water or stagnant?
stagnant water vs stagnant
'Stagnant' is the adjective; 'stagnant water' is the full noun phrase. Do not say 'a stagnant' when you mean the water itself.
Practice
Mosquitoes often lay their eggs in ______.
Choose one answer.
'Stagnant water' is uncountable, so it needs no article: 'in stagnant water'. 'A stagnant water' is wrong because water is not countable in this sense.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “stagnant water”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.