The wetness of water (other synonyms include damp, moist, soaked, all essentially have the same meaning) has been a subject of controversy ever since the first neanderthal noticed the cold, damp feeling his garments gave him every time he let them come in contact with water. Although the argument is purely semantic, I believe that it is of utmost importance that the issue be resolved. And that resolution is that water is wet, plain and simple.

If you look at definitions of water on Merriman or Oxford, you’ll find that water is defined as either “coated with a liquid” or “not dry.” I believe water clearly covers the first category on its own, as it surrounds itself. Even the surface “skin” of water is surrounded by a two-dimensional plane of other water molecules. The latter part of the definition goes a bit deeper, but is much easier to prove absolute. Dry objects are things that have very little water or liquid covering them, and water definitely does not fit this definition. If you assume water isn’t wet, and it isn’t dry, what is it? And There’s no such thing as “something in-between” wet and dry unless you’re talking about personal preference – like when referring to whether or not laundry is dry enough yet – so it must be one or the other. By process of elimination, water is also wet.

The “water is wet” argument stems from purely emotional reasoning. I’ve heard people say water isn’t wet because it doesn’t feel wet when you put your hand in it, or wet can only refer to solid objects. You cannot find a dictionary definition where “wet” strictly refers to a solid, so it must include liquids, but because people don’t “feel” that fits their definition of wet, they deny that it is wet. To all you naysayers in the water/wet argument, wetness isn’t an abstract concept. If you want to change the definition of a word, call up the dictionary and argue your case – they make the definitions.