aqua

Pluralaquas, aquae

1. 1
   blue-green colorednouncountable or uncountable

   A shade of color, usually a blend of blue and green much like turquoise.

   The designer filled the hotel lobby with soft aquas and warm grays.

   Her dress was a bright aqua, somewhere between sky blue and green.

   UsageCan be plural when you mean a range of shades: soft aquas and warm grays.

   Similaraquamarine

   Note

   Aquamarine covers the same family of colors, and either word can stand for the green-blue of clear tropical water or a swimming pool.

2. 2
   blue-green coloredadjective

   Having a greenish-blue color.

   The kitchen has aqua cabinets and white marble countertops.

   An aqua convertible from the 1950s was parked outside the diner.

   Similaraquamarine

3. 3
   adjective

   Done in water, especially in a swimming pool; used before a noun that names an exercise, therapy, or leisure activity.

   After her knee surgery, the doctor recommended aqua therapy twice a week.

   The community center added aqua jogging and aqua Zumba to its summer schedule.

   UsageWritten separately as aqua aerobics, or sometimes hyphenated as aqua-aerobics. In an aqua class, aqua refers to water, not the color.

   Similaraquatic

   Note

   A word from gym timetables and physiotherapy leaflets that goes straight back to Latin aqua, "water". Source

   Checked 1 Nov 2026 · 1 fact

   • The water-related element aqua comes from Latin aqua, meaning water. affixes.org
4. 4
   water (chemistry)noununcountable

   Water considered as a chemical compound, H₂O.

   She turned the shampoo bottle over and saw that the first ingredient, aqua, was just water.

   Check the back of almost any shampoo bottle and you will see aqua listed first, since water is its main ingredient.

   Note

   In chemistry the word earns its keep inside the names of coordination compounds, where each water molecule bound to a metal ion is called an aqua ligand: six of them around one ion make a hexaaqua complex. Older texts write aquo instead. For water in a beaker chemists simply say water; the Latin name is kept for the water a metal holds, and for plain water in the ingredient lists of creams and cosmetics. Source

   Checked 30 Oct 2026 · 3 facts

   • Water bound as a ligand in a coordination compound is named aqua. iupac.qmul.ac.uk
   • Six aqua ligands give the prefix hexaaqua. iupac.qmul.ac.uk
   • Aquo is the former spelling used for water as a ligand. uvm.edu

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