# "Ice cold water": an oxymoron? **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [April 11, 2014, 8:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ice-cold-water-an-oxymoron/685856 "2014-04-11T08:29:23Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Spoons](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spoons/32/3141_2.png) [@Spoons](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoons)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2014, 8:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ice-cold-water-an-oxymoron/685856/1 "2014-04-11T08:29:23Z")
I’m currently in Las Vegas. It is hot here; certainly (to me, who has just come through a long, cold Canadian winter) hotter than I expected. Anyway. While I was out walking today, in the hot sunshine, there was a man selling “ice cold water.” And I got to wondering what “ice cold water” was. “Ice water” is easy enough: it is liquid water formed by melting ice. “Cold water” is similarly easy; it is liquid water at something less than ambient temperature. But “ice cold water”? Wouldn’t that be just … ice? (This is looking for opinions, but is also a mundane and pointless question. I will leave it to the mods to move to IMHO as they wish.) ---
**Author:** ![Lord\_Feldon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lord_feldon/32/341_2.png) [@Lord\_Feldon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lord_Feldon)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2014, 8:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ice-cold-water-an-oxymoron/685856/2 "2014-04-11T08:44:03Z")
“Ice cold” means “really cold,” not “literally so cold that it is exactly as cold as ice and not even a fraction of a degree warmer.” But literally, yes, ice cold water is just ice unless you’re dealing with inhospitable pressures. ---
**Author:** ![Senegoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senegoid/32/6606_2.png) [@Senegoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Senegoid)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2014, 8:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ice-cold-water-an-oxymoron/685856/3 "2014-04-11T08:55:10Z")
In Las Vegas it gets so hot (if you think it’s bad now, wait until summer) that even the ice is liquid. So they call that “ice cold water”. ---
**Author:** ![FairyChatMom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fairychatmom/32/21906_2.png) [@FairyChatMom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FairyChatMom)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2014, 9:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ice-cold-water-an-oxymoron/685856/4 "2014-04-11T09:55:42Z")
Actually, at the [triple point](http://www.thefreedictionary.com/Triple+point+of+water), H[sub]2[/sub]O exists in liquid, solid, and gaseous state simultaneously. And then there’s [supercooling](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Supercooling), where water stays liquid far below the usual freezing point. So it’s not just an expression. ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2014, 10:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ice-cold-water-an-oxymoron/685856/5 "2014-04-11T10:15:05Z")
I thought “ice cold” just mean “as cold as ice water.” ---
**Author:** ![glee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/b5a626/32.png) [@glee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/glee)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2014, 10:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ice-cold-water-an-oxymoron/685856/6 "2014-04-11T10:19:03Z")
It’s Vegas, baby! So it’s just cool\* advertising. 🆒 \*see what I did there… ---
**Author:** ![Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/earl_snake-hips_tucker/32/3269_2.png) [@Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Earl_Snake-Hips_Tucker)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2014, 11:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ice-cold-water-an-oxymoron/685856/7 "2014-04-11T11:46:20Z")
> [@Spoons](#): > > . . .But “ice cold water”? Wouldn’t that be just … ice? > . . . . No, but it’s properly hyphenated: > [@Merriam-Webster](#): > > ice–cold > adjective \ˈīs-ˈkōld\ > > : very cold > > Full Definition of ICE-COLD > : extremely cold ---
**Author:** ![Smeghead](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f1d935/32.png) [@Smeghead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smeghead)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2014, 11:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ice-cold-water-an-oxymoron/685856/8 "2014-04-11T11:57:02Z")
In the lab, we often use a slurry of water and ice to maintain a constant temperature very close to zero degrees. At equilibrium, any heat such a system absorbs goes to turning ice into liquid water instead of raising the temperature. So as long as you have both liquid and solid water at the same time, you can be sure of the temperature. The liquid water in such a system would be, I would suggest, “ice cold water”. ---
**Author:** ![campp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/c5a1d2/32.png) [@campp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/campp)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2014, 12:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ice-cold-water-an-oxymoron/685856/9 "2014-04-11T12:03:46Z")
I’ve always wondered why so many people say “hot water heater” instead of the simpler “water heater”. ---
**Author:** ![johnpost](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f17d59/32.png) [@johnpost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/johnpost)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2014, 2:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ice-cold-water-an-oxymoron/685856/10 "2014-04-11T14:33:46Z")
“triple point water, get your refreshing triple point water” probably not the better selling line. ---
**Author:** ![johnpost](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f17d59/32.png) [@johnpost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/johnpost)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2014, 2:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ice-cold-water-an-oxymoron/685856/11 "2014-04-11T14:36:06Z")
> [@campp](#): > > I’ve always wondered why so many people say “hot water heater” instead of the simpler “water heater”. it is a hot water producer. also a hot water maintainer, when you don’t use the hot water during the day, so it does heat hot water some of the time. ---
**Author:** ![Inna\_Minnit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/5f8ce5/32.png) [@Inna\_Minnit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Inna_Minnit)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2014, 2:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ice-cold-water-an-oxymoron/685856/12 "2014-04-11T14:37:09Z")
Would super cooled water cause damage if you could drink it? ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2014, 2:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ice-cold-water-an-oxymoron/685856/13 "2014-04-11T14:38:08Z")
> [@FairyChatMom](#): > > Actually, at the [triple point](http://www.thefreedictionary.com/Triple+point+of+water), H[sub]2[/sub]O exists in liquid, solid, and gaseous state simultaneously. And then there’s [supercooling](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Supercooling), where water stays liquid far below the usual freezing point. So it’s not just an expression. > [@Smeghead](#): > > In the lab, we often use a slurry of water and ice to maintain a constant temperature very close to zero degrees. At equilibrium, any heat such a system absorbs goes to turning ice into liquid water instead of raising the temperature. So as long as you have both liquid and solid water at the same time, you can be sure of the temperature. The liquid water in such a system would be, I would suggest, “ice cold water”. When I read the OP, I was going to mention the temperature at the phase change; but I was beaten twice. See what I get for sleeping all night? 😛 > [@campp](#): > > I’ve always wondered why so many people say “hot water heater” instead of the simpler “water heater”. I say ‘water heater’. When I was in high school some of my friends published a couple/few issues of a parody of the school’s ‘magazine’. (The school’s copied-and-stapled publication was called _The Ubiquity_. The parody was called _The Ubigot_.) One of the ‘classified ads’ was ‘Wanted: Hot water heater to heat hot water.’ (Another was ‘Wanted: Home tutor to teach ignorant house.’) ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2014, 2:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ice-cold-water-an-oxymoron/685856/14 "2014-04-11T14:46:10Z")
Just in case anyone forgot, ice is water. Ice is ice cold water in addition to the usual meaning. ---
**Author:** ![johnpost](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f17d59/32.png) [@johnpost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/johnpost)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2014, 2:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ice-cold-water-an-oxymoron/685856/15 "2014-04-11T14:58:08Z")
> [@Inna\_Minnit](#): > > Would super cooled water cause damage if you could drink it? inna second. ---
**Author:** ![Smeghead](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f1d935/32.png) [@Smeghead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smeghead)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2014, 3:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ice-cold-water-an-oxymoron/685856/16 "2014-04-11T15:22:09Z")
> [@TriPolar](#): > > Just in case anyone forgot, ice is water. Ice is ice cold water in addition to the usual meaning. But referring to ice is just as imprecise as referring to liquid water. Ice can have all sorts of temperatures, from 0 degrees C all the way down. It’s only from the point of phase change that a precise temperature can be inferred. ---
**Author:** ![chrisk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/6de8d8/32.png) [@chrisk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chrisk)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2014, 3:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ice-cold-water-an-oxymoron/685856/17 "2014-04-11T15:59:27Z")
My immediate reaction is: It’s water about as cold as ice (give or take a degree,) but not actually solid ice. May have ice cubes in it. Also, duh. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Tangent](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tangent/32/3098_2.png) [@Tangent](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tangent)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2014, 4:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ice-cold-water-an-oxymoron/685856/18 "2014-04-11T16:38:26Z")
As others have stated, at standard pressure you can have liquid water and ice coexisting at 0 Celsius. Generally, I would assume “ice cold water” is either water with ice cubes in it, or maybe bottled water that has been cooled in ice. In both cases, their temperature may be at or only slightly above 0 Celsius. ---
**Author:** ![johnpost](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f17d59/32.png) [@johnpost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/johnpost)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2014, 4:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ice-cold-water-an-oxymoron/685856/19 "2014-04-11T16:53:53Z")
“get your water(s) cold water(l). refreshing water(s) cold water(l).” ---
**Author:** ![Gus\_Gusterson](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/85f322/32.png) [@Gus\_Gusterson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gus_Gusterson)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2014, 6:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ice-cold-water-an-oxymoron/685856/20 "2014-04-11T18:33:47Z")
> [@Spoons](#): > > “Ice water” is easy enough: it is liquid water formed by melting ice. “Cold water” is similarly easy; it is liquid water at something less than ambient temperature. “Ice water” is water with ice cubes in it. “Cold water” is water that is subjectively cold. “Ice-cold water” is water that it subjectively very cold; it need not have ice in it. Ice water can be either cold water or ice-cold water, depending on a given person’s subjective opinion about how cold the water is. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ice-cold-water-an-oxymoron/685856.md?page=2)