atmosphereEverything gaseous between the ground and outer space. Each turn of the water cycle lifts water from the ground into the atmosphere and brings it down again.
cloudA floating crowd of droplets too light to fall. A cloud forms when air cools to its dew point. The Latin names of cloud types go back to a system that Luke Howard proposed in 1802.
collectionFallen water gathering in rivers, lakes and seas. On land, fallen water ends up in rivers, lakes, soil and porous rock. Much of it flows back to the ocean, where it can evaporate again.
condensationAir's unseen moisture gathering into drops. It wets the outside of a cold drink can. It is the opposite of evaporation, and it gives off heat.
evaporationWater leaving a puddle or sea as an unseen gas. The ocean supplies 86 percent of all the water that evaporates. Evaporation cools the water that is left behind.
groundwaterEarth's water supply that lies out of sight underfoot. Of the fresh water that is readily available, about 30 percent is groundwater. It returns to the surface at springs and seeps.
Show all 36 terms (30 more)
The water cycle, continued
infiltrationRain passing through the surface into the earth. The wetter the top of the soil already is, the more slowly water gets in.
precipitationDrops or ice grown too heavy to stay up in a cloud. The world receives about 980 millimeters of it a year, averaged over land and sea. It is the main way fresh water reaches the land.
runoffWater that streams across land toward a river. Rivers and lakes are fed by it. Most of the water in them returns to the ocean, though some evaporates on the way.
transpirationThe escape of moisture from the green parts of plants. Of the water that passes through a plant, about 1 percent is used for growth. The other 99 percent goes into the air.
water cycleHow Earth's water keeps moving and changing form. Its other name is the hydrologic cycle. The total amount of water on Earth stays fairly constant; what changes is where the water is and whether it is liquid, ice or vapor.
water vaporH2O as a clear gas, the form that clouds grow from. It forms when water evaporates or boils, or straight from ice. It is lighter than most of the other gases in the air.
Changing state 12
condensation nucleusThe dust or salt grain at the heart of a cloud drop. Water vapor needs a surface to condense on. A typical speck is about a hundred times smaller than the droplet that grows on it.
depositionVapor becoming ice with no liquid stage between. It is the reverse of sublimation. The frost pattern on a winter window is water vapor that became ice without ever being liquid.
dew pointThe temperature that turns damp air's vapor to dew. The more moisture the air holds, the higher its dew point. Fog is likely once the air has cooled to its dew point.
drizzleA light fall of drops much finer than raindrops. A drizzle drop is under 0.5 millimeters wide, and many evaporate before they reach the ground.
freezingA liquid setting hard once it is cold enough. For most substances the freezing point and the melting point are the same temperature. Most liquids freeze by forming crystals.
freezing rainRain that turns to ice the moment it lands. The drops are liquid but colder than freezing. The smooth ice they leave is called glaze, and a storm of it is an ice storm.
frostA white fur of ice grown on a window or a lawn. It forms the way dew does, but on a surface colder than the freezing point of water. Its crystals can grow into long, tree-like shapes.
hailHard ice lumps thrown down by a tall storm cloud. Each lump is a hailstone. Hail needs strong rising air inside the storm.
humidityThe share of a sample of air that is gaseous water. Relative humidity states it as a percentage of the most the air could hold at that temperature. Warm air can hold more than cold air.
meltingA solid going runny once it is warm enough. Scientists also call it fusion. A solid melts when it is heated to its melting point.
snowflakeA delicate plate, needle or column of ice from a cloud. Snow looks white although ice is clear, because the many small faces of the crystals scatter sunlight. Snowflakes are sorted into eight broad classes of shape.
sublimationIce vanishing into the air without first getting wet. Dry ice does it at room temperature. Snow and ice do it slowly while still frozen, which is how a snowfield can shrink in a cold, sunny spell.
Water on land 12
aquiferGround that yields usable water when a well is sunk. The layer can be gravel, sand, silt or cracked rock. Water can stay in an aquifer for thousands of years.
evapotranspirationEvaporation and transpiration counted together. It covers the water that leaves open water, ice, bare soil and plants for the air.
ice sheetA vast dome of ice that buries the land beneath it. Earth has two, on Antarctica and Greenland. The Antarctic ice sheet alone holds more than 60 percent of the planet's fresh water.
interceptionRain or snow caught by plants on its way down. Much of the caught rain evaporates from the leaves and never reaches the soil. Conifers catch more than hardwoods.
meltwaterWhat a snowbank or glacier turns into as it thaws. It is common in early spring, when snow and river ice melt. Where it pools on top of ice it forms melt ponds.
percolationWater sinking deeper through soil and rock layers. It follows infiltration. Plato and Aristotle both guessed that it had a place in the cycle of water.
residence timeHow long, on average, water stays in one place. It runs from days to thousands of years. Ice in Antarctica has been dated to 800,000 years old, though the average stay there is shorter.
snowpackA winter's worth of fallen snow lying on the ground. It builds up at high elevation or high latitude. Communities downslope rely on its water for drinking and farming.
soil moistureThe water that soil is holding at a given time. It stays only a month or two on average before a plant takes it up, it evaporates or it drains away.
stomataLeaf openings a plant can shut to save water. One pore is a stoma, from the Greek word for mouth. A pair of guard cells opens and closes each one, and plants close them when water runs short.
surface waterAny water resting or flowing in the open on land. Most of it arrives as precipitation, and snowmelt adds to it in spring. It shrinks as water evaporates or sinks into the ground.
wetlandA place whose soil is waterlogged and short of oxygen. Wetlands are found on every continent except Antarctica. Their water can be fresh, salty or in between.
How this list was compiled: Term list chosen for this site on 2026-10-15. 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: Water cycle (the hydrologic cycle, the 86 percent of evaporation that comes from the ocean, percolation, Plato and Aristotle, the residence times and the ice of Antarctica dated to 800,000 years), Evaporation, Condensation, Precipitation, Surface runoff, Transpiration, Groundwater, Infiltration (hydrology), Water vapor, Cloud, Humidity, Dew point, Frost, Freezing, Melting, Sublimation (phase transition), Deposition (phase transition), Drizzle, Freezing rain, Hail, Snowflake, Cloud condensation nuclei, Aquifer, Surface water, Soil moisture, Snowpack, Ice sheet, Wetland, Evapotranspiration, Stoma, Interception (water), Meltwater and Water distribution on Earth (the share of fresh water held by the Antarctic ice sheet). Atmosphere, percolation, snowpack and meltwater rest on their entries in Wiktionary, the free dictionary (https://en.wiktionary.org/). Checked a second time against The Hydrologic Cycle of NOAA's JetStream school for weather (https://www.noaa.gov/jetstream/atmosphere/hydro): the water cycle as the motion of water from the ground to the atmosphere and back, evaporation, transpiration through stomata with its 1 and 99 percent, condensation on a cold drink can and the heat it gives off, the dew point and fog, precipitation and its 980 millimeters a year, runoff feeding rivers and lakes, and water that percolates into the ground. Collection rests on The Water Cycle of NASA's Precipitation Education pages (https://gpm.nasa.gov/education/water-cycle), which says that water falling on land collects in rivers and lakes, soil and porous layers of rock and that much of it flows back into the oceans. Dew point, drizzle, freezing rain, hail, sublimation, deposition, evapotranspiration, infiltration, interception, percolation, aquifer, ground water, runoff and cloud condensation nuclei were also read in the glossary of the U.S. National Weather Service (https://forecast.weather.gov/glossary.php); hail and freezing rain on the Severe Weather 101 pages of the NOAA National Severe Storms Laboratory (https://www.nssl.noaa.gov/education/svrwx101/); wetlands on What is a Wetland? of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (https://www.epa.gov/wetlands/what-wetland). The fact after each meaning is from the same pages. Licence: own work
How it works
This printable water cycle vocabulary worksheet lists twelve terms, among them evaporation, condensation, precipitation, collection, runoff, transpiration and groundwater, beside their meanings in jumbled order. Its key prints after the sheet.
Read the full guide
The water cycle worksheet vocabulary, set by set
Set opens on The water cycle. The second set, Changing state, has humidity, dew point, frost, freezing, melting, sublimation, deposition, drizzle, freezing rain, hail, snowflake and condensation nucleus.
Water on land
The third set has percolation, aquifer, surface water, soil moisture, snowpack, ice sheet, wetland, residence time, evapotranspiration, stomata, interception and meltwater.
Rain, snow, sleet, dew and fog are words on the water cycle word search, not terms here.
Questions and answers
Is there a water cycle vocabulary worksheet puzzle for 7th grade?
The matching sheet is the puzzle: twelve terms to pair with twelve meanings in mixed order. The first set has the steps of the cycle. Changing state and Water on land go further, with sublimation, deposition, percolation, aquifer and residence time.
What powers the water cycle?
The sun and gravity. The sun's heat supplies most of the energy that evaporates water. Gravity brings rain and snow down and draws water down through soil and rock.
How long does the water cycle take?
There is no single answer, because water waits a different time in each place. On average it spends about nine days in the air, two to six months in a river, 100 to 200 years in shallow groundwater and about 3,200 years in the ocean.