Is Water Wet? The Science, Both Sides and a Ruling

Is water wet?

Is water wet? The honest answer is that the word wet has an everyday meaning and a technical one, and the two sides of this argument are usually standing on different ones. In ordinary speech, water is the wettest thing there is. In physics and chemistry, wet describes what a liquid does to a surface, and water is the liquid doing it.

That gap is why the argument loops forever. Each side can say something true and still sound wrong to the other. Before arguing, it helps to ask the one question that decides it: wet according to what definition?

What does wet mean?

The Cambridge Dictionary defines wet as covered in water or another liquid. That definition is about an object and its surface: your shirt is wet, the road is wet. It quietly assumes two things, a liquid and something for the liquid to cover.

Science makes the same assumption more precisely. Wetting is the ability of a liquid to maintain contact with a solid surface. Whether a liquid wets a surface depends on a tug of war between adhesion, the liquid's attraction to the surface, and cohesion, the liquid's attraction to itself. When adhesion wins, the liquid spreads out and the contact angle stays below 90 degrees. When cohesion wins, it beads up, which is why water rolls off a lotus leaf instead of wetting it.

The verdict

What it sounds like

The case for wet

The wet side's best argument is about water itself. The U.S. Geological Survey describes water as highly cohesive: its molecules are polar and cling to each other through hydrogen bonds. Every water molecule in a glass is surrounded and covered by other water molecules. If wet means covered in liquid, the water in the middle of the glass is covered in liquid.

They also have experience on their side. Touch water and it feels wet. Ask anyone outside a science class whether water is wet and they will look at you as if you asked whether fire is hot. Language belongs to the people who use it, and people call water wet.

• Water molecules are covered by other water molecules, so water is covered in liquid.
• Water feels wet, and wet is first of all a feeling.
• In everyday English, water is the standard example of something wet.

The case for not wet

The not wet side argues that wet is a state something can be in or not be in. A towel can be wet or dry. Water cannot be dry, so calling it wet tells you nothing, the way calling a triangle three-sided adds nothing. Wetness is the result of water meeting something else.

Science backs the narrow reading. The definition of wetting talks about a liquid and a solid surface, and the whole contact angle story only makes sense when there are two different materials. Water clinging to water is cohesion, a different word for a different thing. By that standard, water is what makes things wet, not something that is itself wet.

Why the argument goes in circles

Most water arguments slide between meanings mid sentence. Someone starts with the scientific sense, gets pushed, and switches to the everyday sense, or the reverse. That is equivocation, and when someone keeps changing the definition every time they lose a round, it shades into moving the goalposts.

The other trap is "water is wet because it's water," which assumes the answer to prove it. That is circular reasoning, and it does not move anyone. Pick a definition first, then argue.

The ruling

If the question is scientific, water is not wet: wetting describes a liquid's contact with a solid surface, and water is the liquid. If the question is about everyday English, water is wet and anyone who says otherwise is being difficult on purpose.

Since the question usually comes up as a challenge to be precise, we give it to the not wet side, with full respect to common sense. Still arguing? Paste both sides into the argument judge.