How to Use watercooler in a Sentence

watercooler

noun
  • Word by the watercooler water well is that the other three have to be the next to go.
    — Nick Caruso, TVLine, 27 Nov. 2024
  • To get an idea of how many people are back in the office, just check the watercoolers.
    — Fortune, 2 Mar. 2023
  • Here’s where the idea stops being the stuff of sci-fi watercooler talk and starts to sound real.
    — Caroline Delbert, Popular Mechanics, 30 July 2020
  • All of them were watercooler topics the entire next week.
    — Ethan Slater, Vulture, 1 Dec. 2025
  • There hasn’t really been a true watercooler moment in a minute.
    — Ali Barthwell, Vulture, 6 Feb. 2024
  • The film's twist is one of those watercooler moments that rivals any horror movie ending.
    — Steven Thrash, Entertainment Weekly, 25 Oct. 2025
  • The film's twist is one of those watercooler moments that rivals any horror movie ending.
    — Steven Thrash, EW.com, 28 Oct. 2022
  • Teams should be able to share work updates or gather around the virtual watercooler.
    — Steven Kramer, Forbes, 10 May 2021
  • Yes, there were moments worthy of that old watercooler banter.
    — Marc Berman, Forbes.com, 13 Aug. 2025
  • Good shows ought to have a chance to marinate, to get that glorious watercooler talk week after week.
    — Erik Kain, Forbes, 6 Oct. 2024
  • Nor, they were relieved to discover, did there seem to be any inside jokes or watercooler gossip to catch up on.
    — WIRED, 15 Nov. 2022
  • That’s the watercooler moment — the thing that people are talking about two weeks afterwards.
    — Angelique Jackson, Variety, 3 Jan. 2024
  • After all, people want something to discuss at the watercooler.
    — Alex Weprin, The Hollywood Reporter, 3 Sep. 2019
  • The watercooler show had been replaced by rabbit-hole television.
    — Mary Kaye Schilling, Newsweek, 4 Mar. 2018
  • In the first of two new episodes Rob Lowe counts down the greatest watercooler moments of the ‘80s.
    — Los Angeles Times, 1 Jan. 2022
  • As news of their divorce hit, watercooler speculation in the nonprofit world reached fever pitch.
    — Danielle Stein Chizzik, Town & Country, 5 May 2021
  • The informal nature of a chat app, where dozens of coworkers might treat it like a watercooler, could compound this problem.
    — Sam MacHkovech, Ars Technica, 3 Feb. 2020
  • Having coffee with people and chatting in the kitchen by the watercooler are productive uses of time.
    — Shelley Zalis, Forbes, 20 Sep. 2021
  • The idea feels like a funny vestigial trace of a pre-pandemic world—Are watercooler topics still a thing?
    — Kieran Press-Reynolds, Pitchfork, 21 May 2025
  • But the Sports Stadium is more like a news-source-meets-watercooler meant for chatting, not streaming.
    — Julia Greenberg, WIRED, 9 Mar. 2016
  • What are the McLean-like watercooler stories within audit firms?
    — Karthik Ramanna, Fortune, 11 July 2020
  • And that show was a global phenomenon, back at a time when there weren’t as many channels, there weren’t as many options, and there were still watercooler shows.
    — Leo Barraclough, Variety, 22 June 2022
  • Ever get the sense of being left out of watercooler conversations, inside jokes and the fast track for promotions?
    — Hui Liao, baltimoresun.com, 5 Dec. 2019
  • Expect there to be a lot of social media/TV/barroom/watercooler chatter over how both teams should go back to those looks.
    — Jim Reineking, USA Today, 11 Dec. 2025
  • Employees aren’t chained to their desks and are free to engage in watercooler talk, but there is also a sufficient amount of meaningful work to be done.
    — Christopher Tompkins, Forbes, 27 Dec. 2021
  • There had certainly been little to suggest that a watercooler event of seismic proportions was about to be unleashed.
    — Richard Edwards, Space.com, 5 Dec. 2025
  • With watercooler talks, social media, and the internet, getting off track throughout the workday is easy.
    — Mike Kappel, Forbes, 15 June 2022
  • But for older leaders, the nostalgic pull of the watercooler remains steadfast.
    — Ann Kowal Smith, Forbes, 30 Sep. 2024
  • Because of that, Art’s honest-to-god freakout felt like a genuine, unplanned watercooler moment.
    — Shaad D'souza, Vulture, 15 May 2021
  • In the streaming age, when many people can watch anything at any time, live sports remain as one of the few ways advertisers can create watercooler moments.
    — Jamie Barton, CNN, 4 Feb. 2025

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'watercooler.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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