there must be something in the water
Proposed by a contributor, not yet supported by evidence.
Meaning · English
An unusual number of people in a small area share a characteristic
Nghĩa · Tiếng Việt
Một số người trong một khu vực nhỏ có điểm chung
Machine-translated — suggest a fix
Literally: water in a location having a mysterious effect
Where it’s used:
Used
Widespread English
Examples
With three pregnant women in the office, there must be something in the water
AI-drafted example auto-approved by rule (illustrative, not a corpus attestation)
Sources & notes
Listed in Wiktionary’s “English idioms” category (retrieved 2026-07-29); definition pending editorial review. Definition drafted by AI (@cf/meta/llama-3.3-70b-instruct-fp8-fast) and auto-approved by rule on 2026-07-31; pending editor spot-check.
Common questions
What does “there must be something in the water” mean?
An unusual number of people in a small area share a characteristic Literally: water in a location having a mysterious effect
Is “there must be something in the water” formal or informal?
No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.