adhesionThe clinging of molecules to a different substance. Adhesion is what keeps a drop of water hanging from the tip of a pine needle.
capillary actionThe climb of a liquid through narrow spaces. Dip the corner of a paper towel in water and the water creeps upward. The narrower the tube, the higher water rises in it.
cohesionThe sticking together of molecules of the same kind. Cohesion gathers water into drops. Water is the most cohesive of the nonmetallic liquids.
densityWhat makes a thing heavy or light for its size. Water's is about 1 gram per milliliter. Water is densest at about 4 degrees Celsius, so the coldest water in a lake lies on top and the lake freezes from the top down.
hydrogen bondA weak bond from hydrogen to a neighboring molecule. One water molecule can take part in as many as four hydrogen bonds at once.
meniscusThe dip or bulge in a liquid's surface in a tube. Water in a glass tube curves up at the edges because it clings to the glass. Mercury curves the other way. The word is Greek for crescent.
Show all 36 terms (30 more)
Properties of water, continued
polarityA split of charge that gives a molecule two poles. A molecule with a positive end and a negative end is called polar. Water is strongly polar for so small a molecule.
solventThe liquid that takes a solute in and holds it. The word is from the Latin solvo, to loosen. Water is the solvent that living things use most.
specific heatThe heat it takes to warm one gram by one degree. Water's is high: warming a kilogram of water by one degree Celsius takes 4,184 joules, and a kilogram of copper only 385. Places near the sea have milder weather for that reason.
surface tensionThe way a liquid's surface resists being broken. Water has more of it than most liquids, enough to hold up a metal paper clip laid flat on the surface.
universal solventA nickname for water, which dissolves so many things. No other liquid dissolves as many substances as water does, though even water cannot dissolve everything.
water moleculeOne oxygen atom holding two hydrogen atoms. Its formula is H2O. The molecule is bent: both hydrogen atoms sit to one side of the oxygen, about 104.5 degrees apart.
Water as a solvent 12
concentrationHow much solute a set amount of solution holds. Adding more solvent lowers the concentration, which is called diluting.
dissolveTo break down in a liquid into unseen particles. Wherever water goes, through the ground or through a body, it carries dissolved minerals and nutrients along.
distilled waterWater boiled to vapor, then cooled back to liquid. The minerals and other impurities stay behind in the first container.
hard waterWater rich in dissolved calcium and magnesium. It leaves scale in kettles and makes soap lather poorly. Water picks the minerals up as it seeps through rock such as limestone.
hydrophilicAttracted to water and able to mix with it. The word means water-loving. A hydrophilic surface is one that water wets.
hydrophobicSeemingly repelled by water and not mixing with it. Oils, fats and greasy substances are hydrophobic. A lotus leaf is so hydrophobic that it is very hard to wet.
ionAn electrically charged particle such as Na+ or Cl-. In water, table salt comes apart into sodium ions, which are positive, and chloride ions, which are negative.
neutralIn balance between acid and base, like pure water. Neutral water stands at 7 on the pH scale. A tiny share of its molecules split into hydrogen ions and hydroxide ions, in equal numbers.
pHA number that rates a liquid from acid to base. The scale runs from 0 to 14. Each step is a tenfold change, so water of pH 5 is ten times as acidic as water of pH 6.
salinityThe weight of salt carried in each kilogram of water. Seawater has about 35 grams of salt in every kilogram, which lowers its freezing point to about minus 2 degrees Celsius.
soluteThe part of a solution that has been dissolved. Salt is the solute of salt water. Solids, liquids and gases can all be solutes.
solutionA liquid mix so even that its parts cannot be seen. When water does the dissolving the mix is called an aqueous solution, from aqua, the Latin for water.
Ice, heat and water vapor 12
boiling pointHow hot a liquid must get to bubble away as vapor. At sea level water boils at 100 degrees Celsius. At 1,905 meters up, where the air presses less, it boils at about 93.
buoyancyThe lift a fluid gives to anything placed in it. The push equals the weight of the fluid the object moves aside, a rule named for Archimedes.
condensationThe turning of a gas to liquid as it gives up heat. On a humid day it wets the outside of a glass of cold water. When a gas turns straight to a solid instead, the change is called deposition.
evaporationThe drying up of a liquid as its molecules fly off. Laundry on a line dries by evaporation, and wind speeds the drying. Humid air slows it down.
evaporative coolingThe drop in temperature as a liquid evaporates. Sweat cools the skin this way, because water takes up a large amount of heat as it evaporates.
freezing pointHow cold a liquid must get before it turns solid. For fresh water it is 0 degrees Celsius, or 32 degrees Fahrenheit, which is also the temperature at which ice melts.
heat of vaporizationThe energy it takes to boil a liquid away to gas. Water's is high, about 2,257 kilojoules for a kilogram at the boiling point, because of the hydrogen bonds between its molecules.
humidityThe moistness of air, from the vapor mixed in it. Warm air can take in more water vapor than cool air before it is saturated.
iceWater turned to a solid, in six-sided crystals. Its molecules lock into an open lattice, so ice is about a tenth less dense than liquid water. About a tenth of an iceberg shows above the waterline.
state of matterA form such as ice or steam that a substance takes. On Earth's surface water is the only common substance found as a solid, as a liquid and as a gas.
transpirationA plant's passing of root water out into the air. The water leaves through small pores called stomata. Adhesion and cohesion help draw it up from the roots.
water vaporWater that has evaporated and mixed into the air. Most of the other gases in air are denser than it is, and it is a greenhouse gas.
How this list was compiled: Term list chosen for this site on 2026-10-12. Each meaning is written in our own words and was checked that day against the article on the term in the English Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/), whose text is under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike license: Properties of water, Water, Chemical polarity, Hydrogen bond, Cohesion (chemistry), Adhesion, Surface tension, Capillary action, Meniscus (liquid), Solvent, Specific heat capacity, Density, Solution (chemistry), Aqueous solution, Solubility, Solvation, Hydrophile, Hydrophobe, Concentration, Ion, PH, Self-ionization of water, Salinity, Seawater, Hard water, Distilled water, State of matter, Ice, Melting point, Boiling point, Water vapor, Evaporation, Condensation, Evaporative cooler, Perspiration, Enthalpy of vaporization, Transpiration, Buoyancy and Humidity. Hydrophilic and hydrophobic were also read in Wiktionary, the free dictionary (https://en.wiktionary.org/). Cohesion, adhesion, surface tension, capillary action, the meniscus, specific heat, density and ice, the universal solvent, hardness, pH, condensation and transpiration were checked a second time against the Water Science School of the U.S. Geological Survey (https://www.usgs.gov/special-topics/water-science-school): Adhesion and Cohesion of Water, Surface Tension and Water, Capillary Action and Water, Specific Heat Capacity and Water, Water Density, Water, the Universal Solvent, Hardness of Water, pH and Water, Condensation and the Water Cycle, and Evapotranspiration and the Water Cycle. Wikipedia gives ice as about 8.3 percent less dense than liquid water and the Survey gives its density as about 90 percent of water's, so the list says about a tenth. The fact after each meaning is from the same pages. Licence: own work
How it works
This properties of water vocabulary worksheet is a matching sheet: cohesion, adhesion, surface tension, polarity, solvent, capillary action and six more terms on the left, their meanings mixed up on the right. The answer key is the last page.
Read the full guide
Water as a solvent
Set opens on Properties of water. The second set has solute, solution, dissolve, hydrophilic, hydrophobic, concentration, ion, pH, neutral, salinity, hard water and distilled water.
Ice, heat and water vapor
The third set has state of matter, ice, freezing point, boiling point, water vapor, evaporation, condensation, evaporative cooling, heat of vaporization, transpiration, buoyancy and humidity.
The steps of the water cycle are not terms here. Precipitation, runoff and infiltration are on the water cycle word search.
Questions and answers
What are the properties of water?
The ones most classes study are cohesion, adhesion, surface tension, capillary action, a high specific heat, the power to dissolve many substances, and the oddity that ice, its solid form, is less dense than the liquid.
Is this a properties of water vocabulary matching worksheet?
Yes. Pupils draw a line from each term to its meaning in the other column.
Why is water a polar molecule?
Oxygen pulls on the shared electrons harder than hydrogen does, and the molecule is bent, not straight. So the oxygen end is slightly negative and the two hydrogens, off to one side, are slightly positive.
How do insects walk on water?
Surface tension holds them up. Water molecules cling to one another so strongly that the surface can bear a light insect such as a water strider, though the insect is denser than water.