Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun An underground layer of permeable rock, sediment, or soil that yields water. Aquifers can range from a few square kilometers to thousands of square kilometers in size.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun In geology, a water-bearing bed or stratum, necessarily of some open-textured rock.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun an underground bed or layer yielding ground water for wells and springs etc.. The water contained in an aquifer may be of great age, and in such cases is sometimes called fossil water.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun An underground layer of water-bearing porous stone, earth, or gravel

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun underground bed or layer yielding ground water for wells and springs etc

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Latin aqui-, from aqua + -fer, from Latin ferō.

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Examples

  • The word aquifer comes from the two Latin words, aqua, or water, and ferre, to bear or carry.

    Groundwater 2010

  • The aquifer is draining faster than it is filling.

    Albloggerque johnny_mango 2005

  • Gaza's water source comes from an aquifer from the North formed by rain water.

    Long-Term Aid to the Middle East 1990

  • Their idea was a play on the word aquifer: “AQuAfer.”

    GJSentinel - Latest News Headlines 2009

  • We live on the desert, but our underground aquifer is doing just fine, so we don’t have a water shortage.

    travelling with dogs 2002

  • We live on the desert, but our underground aquifer is doing just fine, so we don’t have a water shortage.

    travelling with dogs 2002

  • : We live on the desert, but our underground aquifer is doing just fine, so we don’t have a water shortage.

    travelling with dogs 2002

  • : We live on the desert, but our underground aquifer is doing just fine, so we don’t have a water shortage.

    travelling with dogs 2002

  • We live on the desert, but our underground aquifer is doing just fine, so we don’t have a water shortage.

    travelling with dogs 2002

  • : We live on the desert, but our underground aquifer is doing just fine, so we don’t have a water shortage.

    travelling with dogs 2002

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