watermark

1 of 2

noun

wa·​ter·​mark ˈwȯ-tər-ˌmärk 

ˈwä-

1

: a mark indicating the height to which water has risen

2

: a marking in paper resulting from differences in thickness usually produced by pressure of a projecting design in the mold or on a processing roll and visible when the paper is held up to the light

also : the design of or the metal pattern producing the marking

watermark

2 of 2

verb

watermarked; watermarking; watermarks

transitive verb

1

: to mark (paper) with a watermark

2

: to impress (a given design) as a watermark

Examples of watermark in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

Noun

That means the presence or absence of a watermark does not tell the complete story of a student’s assignment or work. — Melissa Loble, Forbes.com, 5 Oct. 2026

Readers will not see the watermark, but OpenAI’s detector can analyze text for evidence of that signal. — Aamir Khollam, Interesting Engineering, 5 Oct. 2026

Verb

Anthropic, the company behind Claude, has signed the bloc's Code of Practice on Transparency of AI-Generated Content, one of around 190 signatories, and now plans to watermark Claude's output across its ecosystem. — New Atlas, 25 Aug. 2026

Meanwhile, OpenAI has reportedly had the capacity to watermark ChatGPT text for years, but has not done so — reporting from the Wall Street Journal attributed that to concerns including false positives and competitive risk. — Anisha Sircar, Forbes.com, 13 Aug. 2026

Word History

First Known Use

Noun

1577, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Verb

circa 1800, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Rhymes for watermark

• disembark
• matriarch
• meadowlark
• patriarch
• arc
• ark
• bark
• barque
• dark
• hark
• lark
• marc

Kids Definition

watermark

1 of 2 noun

wa·​ter·​mark ˈwȯt-ər-ˌmärk 

ˈwät-

1

: a mark that shows the height to which water has risen

2

: a mark (as the maker's name or trademark) made in paper during manufacture and visible when the paper is held up to the light

watermark

2 of 2 verb

: to mark with a watermark