What does "headwaters" mean?

The source of a river, the set of streams that feed into the river's beginning.

What is a synonym for "headwaters"?

Common synonyms include: headwater, fountainhead, head, riverhead, source.

Pronounced //ˈhɛdˌwɑtɝz//.

//ˈhɛdˌwɑtɝz// noun

noun ·Rare ·Advanced level

Noun

1
The source of a river, the set of streams that feed into the river's beginning. plural, plural-only
"... but when his brows began to wrinkle with time, and he stood alone, the last of his family, and his particular tribe, the few Delawares, who yet continued about the head-waters of their river, gave him the mournful appellation of Mohegan."

"The headwaters of the River Thames are found in Gloucestershire, and its mouth is on the North Sea."

From head + waters.

Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.