watermark

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   a faint identifying design formed in paper during manufacture and visible when held to the light

   The archivist held the sheet up to examine its watermark.

2. 2
   noun

   a line or trace showing the level previously reached by water

   A muddy watermark showed how high the river had risen.

3. 3
   noun

   a visible or hidden identifying mark added to a digital image, document, or recording

   The agency placed a watermark across the preview image.

From water and mark. The earliest sense referred to a design made in paper while the wet pulp was being formed; the term also came to mean a trace left by the level of water and, later, an identifying mark embedded in digital media.

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