Science, Tech, Math › Science What Is the Melting Point of Water? Share Flipboard Email Print For most purposes, you can consider the melting point of water to be 0°C or 32°F. Pieter Kuiper, Creative Commons License Science Chemistry Basics Chemical Laws Molecules Periodic Table Projects & Experiments Scientific Method Biochemistry Physical Chemistry Medical Chemistry Chemistry In Everyday Life Famous Chemists Activities for Kids Abbreviations & Acronyms Biology Physics Geology Astronomy Weather & Climate By Anne Marie Helmenstine, Ph.D. Anne Marie Helmenstine, Ph.D. Facebook Twitter Chemistry Expert Ph.D., Biomedical Sciences, University of Tennessee at Knoxville B.A., Physics and Mathematics, Hastings College Dr. Helmenstine holds a Ph.D. in biomedical sciences and is a science writer, educator, and consultant. She has taught science courses at the high school, college, and graduate levels. Learn about our Editorial Process Updated on June 05, 2019 The melting point of water is not always the same as the freezing point of water! Here is a look at the melting point of water and why it changes. The melting point of water is the temperature at which it changes from solid ice into liquid water. The solid and liquid phase of water are in equilibrium at this temperature. The melting point depends slightly on pressure, so there is not a single temperature that can be considered to be the melting point of water. However, for practical purposes, the melting point of pure water ice at 1 atmosphere of pressure is very nearly 0 °C, which is 32 °F or 273.15 K. The melting point and freezing point of water ideally are the same, especially if there are gas bubbles in water, but if the water is free of nucleating points, water can supercool all the way down to −42 °C (−43.6 °F, 231 K) before freezing. So, in some cases, the melting point of water is considerably higher than its freezing point. Learn More Boiling Point of Water Periodic Table of Melting Points Normal Melting Point Definition Cite this Article Format mla apa chicago Your Citation Helmenstine, Anne Marie, Ph.D. "What Is the Melting Point of Water?" ThoughtCo, Feb. 16, 2021, thoughtco.com/what-is-the-melting-point-of-water-609414. Helmenstine, Anne Marie, Ph.D. (2021, February 16). What Is the Melting Point of Water? Retrieved from https://www.thoughtco.com/what-is-the-melting-point-of-water-609414 Helmenstine, Anne Marie, Ph.D. "What Is the Melting Point of Water?" ThoughtCo. https://www.thoughtco.com/what-is-the-melting-point-of-water-609414 (accessed March 24, 2023). copy citation