What does sewer mean?
A sewer is an underground channel or pipe that carries sewage and other wastewater away from buildings and streets. The term may also refer more broadly to the network of channels, pumps, and treatment infrastructure known as a sewer system. Sewers are essential to public sanitation because they remove human waste and rainwater from populated areas, although aging infrastructure can lead to flooding, contamination, and expensive repairs. The word is common in technical, municipal, and environmental contexts, including discussions of sewer construction, maintenance, overflows, and pollution. In figurative use, comparisons to a sewer can convey the idea of conditions that are dirty, unpleasant, morally corrupt, or socially degrading. Although the basic physical meaning is well established, the word's figurative senses often depend on a contrast between a clean public environment and something hidden or neglected beneath it.
A channel or pipe, usually underground, for carrying sewage and wastewater; by extension, the network of such channels.
"The city is replacing aging sewers to prevent flooding during heavy rain."
The singular commonly denotes one conduit or section of the network, while the collective system is often described as the sewer system or sewers.
To carry or drain wastewater through a sewer or sewer system.
"The creek was polluted after storm water sewered through the industrial area."
This verb is relatively uncommon and is more often encountered in technical or historical writing than in everyday speech.
The plural refers to individual underground conduits or, collectively, to the components of a city's sewer system.
"Several sewers were damaged by the earthquake."
Modern cities hide an entire underground network of channels beneath their streets, quietly carrying wastewater away from homes and businesses.
Reviewed by Deb Chak, Editor. AI-assisted content curated by RJS Tech Solutions LLP.
Where does sewer come from?
The English word entered Middle English in the late medieval period, probably through Old French, where a related term referred to a channel or conduit for water. Its older forms were associated with drainage and the carrying away of waste, while modern usage developed alongside the expansion of municipal sewerage systems. The precise medieval Latin and ultimate source of the Old French term have been debated, so the safest historical account is that English borrowed a drainage-related word that was subsequently reshaped by the development of urban sanitation.
Related word forms
How sewer is actually used
In British English, the pronunciation is commonly /ˈsuːə/ or /ˈsjuːə/, while North American English often has a rhotic pronunciation. The word is usually technical, municipal, or infrastructural, though it can also be used figuratively for something morally sordid or degrading.
Easily confused with sewer
A sewer is an individual channel or pipe, while sewerage refers to the system or process of carrying wastewater through sewers.