Meanings
alternative head-waters · alternative head waters
- pluralplural onlyThe source of a river, the set of streams that feed into the river's beginning.
Driver Thornhill beckoned me across the cab and pointed out some two miles ahead as we looked across the headwaters of the Eden Valley, the summit cabin at Ais Gill itself, with the summit point and altitude conspicuously indicated.
1949 March and April, F. G. Roe, “I Saw Three Englands–2”, in Railway Magazine, page 821 more example
... but when his brows began to wrinkle with time, and he stood alone, the last of his family, and his particular tribe, the few Delawares, who yet continued about the head-waters of their river, gave him the mournful appellation of Mohegan.
1823, James Fenimore Cooper, The Pioneers
Origin
Translations
Catalan capçalera
- capçalerathe set of streams that feed into the beginning of a river
French source
- sourcethe set of streams that feed into the beginning of a river
German Quellflüsse, Quellgebiet
- Quellflüssethe set of streams that feed into the beginning of a river
- Quellgebietthe set of streams that feed into the beginning of a river
Hawaiian māno
- mānothe set of streams that feed into the beginning of a river
Italian sorgente
- sorgentethe set of streams that feed into the beginning of a river
Japanese 水上
- 水上 (minakami)the set of streams that feed into the beginning of a river
Malay hulu
- huluthe set of streams that feed into the beginning of a river
Māori taiwhakaroto, hiku
- taiwhakarotothe set of streams that feed into the beginning of a river
- hikuthe set of streams that feed into the beginning of a river
Portuguese nascente, cabeceira
- nascentethe set of streams that feed into the beginning of a river
- cabeceirathe set of streams that feed into the beginning of a river
- olho-d’águathe set of streams that feed into the beginning of a river
- exsurgênciathe set of streams that feed into the beginning of a river
- mina de águathe set of streams that feed into the beginning of a river
- fontethe set of streams that feed into the beginning of a river
Spanish cabecera, afloramiento
- cabecerathe set of streams that feed into the beginning of a river
- afloramientothe set of streams that feed into the beginning of a river
- manantialthe set of streams that feed into the beginning of a river
- nacientethe set of streams that feed into the beginning of a river
- nascimientothe set of streams that feed into the beginning of a river
- nacimientothe set of streams that feed into the beginning of a river
- fontanarthe set of streams that feed into the beginning of a river
- hontanarthe set of streams that feed into the beginning of a river
Tagalog inantubig
- inantubigthe set of streams that feed into the beginning of a river
Cite this entry
headwaters. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 2, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/headwaters
“headwaters.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/headwaters. Accessed November 2, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “headwaters,” accessed November 2, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/headwaters.
Source: headwaters on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.