Definition of "headwater" []

• The water from which a river rises; a source. Often used in the plural. (noun)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "The river's future flows may be greatly diminished because of climate change affecting weather patterns in headwater areas."
• "More than four decades since King's letter and the Kentucky movement to abolish strip-mining, Kentuckians and the nation have watched as close to 300 mountains and nearly 600,000 acres of hardwood forests, and hundreds of miles of headwater streams, have been irreversibly destroyed by mountaintop removal strip mining."
• "Local residents, Sierra Club, and our allies working to protect a headwater stream in the beautiful Apple River watershed from being converted to a manure storage lagoon have won a major victory with Illinois EPA's denial of an essential permit for the project."