cistern

[ sis-tern ]

noun

1. a reservoir, tank, or container for storing or holding water or other liquid.
2. Anatomy. a reservoir or receptacle of some natural fluid of the body.

cistern

/ sɪˈstɜːnəl; ˈsɪstən /

noun

1. a tank for the storage of water, esp on or within the roof of a house or connected to a WC
2. an underground reservoir for the storage of a liquid, esp rainwater
3. anatomy another name for cisterna

Derived Forms

• cisternal, adjective

Word History and Origins

Origin of cistern¹

1250–1300; Middle English cistern ( e ) < Latin cisterna, equivalent to cist ( a ) ( cist ¹ ) + -erna noun suffix

Word History and Origins

Origin of cistern¹

C13: from Old French cisterne, from Latin cisterna underground tank, from cista box

Example Sentences

"He used to hide them in the gutter above his bedroom window and in the toilet cistern - I'd cut open his old teddy bears and he'd stashed them in there - my husband and I didn't know what to do."

From BBC

“Our dream was to bathe in the river like Parisians used to do 100 years ago,” the city’s mayor, Anne Hidalgo, said in May at the opening of a huge stormwater cistern near to the Austerlitz train station, one of half a dozen major infrastructure projects in a $1.5-billion drive to clean up the river.

From Los Angeles Times

Once back home, Yazzie has her son refill a cistern in the family’s yard.

From Los Angeles Times

I prodded him and shouted, “Do you have a cistern, a well, anything?”

From Literature

A tattered Cambodian flag flaps gently in the scorching midday sun on her corner lot, its depiction of the Angkor Wat temple barely still visible, while her brother scoops water from a clay cistern onto a neighbor’s cow that he tends during the day.

From Seattle Times