What does waterjet mean?
Waterjet is a compact technical word for a forceful, directed stream of water and, by extension, for equipment that produces one. Its best-known modern application is industrial cutting: an abrasive waterjet directs water at extremely high pressure, and suspended abrasive particles help it slice metals, stone, composites, and other materials. Waterjets also appear in marine propulsion, where a pump ejects water backward to push a vessel forward. In more general descriptions, a water jet may simply be water issuing from a nozzle or opening, though many writers use the two-word form in that sense. The closed compound is particularly common in technical and industrial contexts, where waterjet serves as a concise name for a machine, process, or propulsion system. The term is therefore useful not only because it identifies a powerful stream of water, but because it also signals the specialised engineering practices built around controlling that stream.
nounA forceful stream of water, especially one expelled under pressure through a nozzle; also, a device or system that produces such a stream. In manufacturing, the term commonly denotes a high-pressure water-cutting machine, often using an abrasive additive.
- An industrial machine or cutting system that directs a high-pressure jet of water, usually mixed with abrasive particles, against a material.
- A forceful, directed stream of water discharged through a nozzle or opening.
- A pump or propulsion system that expels water as a jet, as in some marine vessels.
"The abrasive waterjet cut cleanly through the thick steel plate."
"The abrasive waterjet sliced a twenty-millimetre steel plate without damaging the surrounding surface."
"The rescue boat reversed its waterjet and pushed the vessel away from the rocks."
Waterjet is countable when referring to a machine, cutter, or propulsion system; the attributive form is normally singular.
"The company installed two waterjets for cutting thick composites."
At pressures high enough to cut steel, water needs help from abrasive particles—but the cutting edge is still a stream of water.
Reviewed by Deb Chak, Editor. AI-assisted content curated by RJS Tech Solutions LLP.
Etymology of waterjet
Waterjet is an English compound of water and jet. In its sense of a directed stream or discharge, jet came into Middle English from Old French jet, ultimately from Latin iactare, meaning to throw, an intensive form of iacere. The compound was later adopted in technical language for high-pressure cutting and water-jet propulsion systems.
Related word forms
How waterjet is actually used
The closed form is especially common in technical and industrial contexts. In general prose, the two-word form water jet is often more usual for the stream itself.