diff --git a/package/CHANGELOG b/package/CHANGELOG
index 23b4dbf7dd..97bbf8a129 100644
--- a/package/CHANGELOG
+++ b/package/CHANGELOG
@@ -29,6 +29,7 @@ Fixes
 Enhancements
  * Improve distopia backend support in line with new functionality available 
    in distopia >= 0.3.1 (PR #4734)
+ * Addition of 'water' token for water selection (Issue #4839)
  * Enables parallelization for analysis.density.DensityAnalysis (Issue #4677, PR #4729)
  * Enables parallelization for analysis.contacts.Contacts (Issue #4660)
  * Enable parallelization for analysis.nucleicacids.NucPairDist (Issue #4670)
diff --git a/package/MDAnalysis/core/selection.py b/package/MDAnalysis/core/selection.py
index 591c074030..6c2ea3c817 100644
--- a/package/MDAnalysis/core/selection.py
+++ b/package/MDAnalysis/core/selection.py
@@ -1094,6 +1094,37 @@ def _apply(self, group):
         return group[mask]
 
 
+class WaterSelection(Selection):
+    """All atoms in water residues with recognized water residue names.
+
+    Recognized residue names:
+
+    * recognized 3 Letter resnames: 'H2O', 'HOH', 'OH2', 'HHO', 'OHH'
+        'TIP', 'T3P', 'T4P', 'T5P', 'SOL', 'WAT'
+
+    * recognized 4 Letter resnames: 'TIP2', 'TIP3', 'TIP4'
+
+    .. versionadded:: 2.9.0
+    """
+    token = 'water'
+
+    # Recognized water resnames
+    water_res = {
+        'H2O', 'HOH', 'OH2', 'HHO', 'OHH',
+        'T3P', 'T4P', 'T5P', 'SOL', 'WAT',
+        'TIP', 'TIP2', 'TIP3', 'TIP4'
+    }
+
+    def _apply(self, group):
+        resnames = group.universe._topology.resnames
+        nmidx = resnames.nmidx[group.resindices]
+
+        matches = [ix for (nm, ix) in resnames.namedict.items()
+                   if nm in self.water_res]
+        mask = np.isin(nmidx, matches)
+
+        return group[mask]
+
 class BackboneSelection(ProteinSelection):
     """A BackboneSelection contains all atoms with name 'N', 'CA', 'C', 'O'.
 
diff --git a/package/doc/sphinx/source/documentation_pages/analysis/polymer.rst b/package/doc/sphinx/source/documentation_pages/analysis/polymer.rst
index 6641bb5689..6b7d9b8113 100644
--- a/package/doc/sphinx/source/documentation_pages/analysis/polymer.rst
+++ b/package/doc/sphinx/source/documentation_pages/analysis/polymer.rst
@@ -1,3 +1,3 @@
 .. automodule:: MDAnalysis.analysis.polymer
    :members:
-
+   :inherited-members:
diff --git a/package/doc/sphinx/source/documentation_pages/selections.rst b/package/doc/sphinx/source/documentation_pages/selections.rst
index 6ee7f26bc2..124e231207 100644
--- a/package/doc/sphinx/source/documentation_pages/selections.rst
+++ b/package/doc/sphinx/source/documentation_pages/selections.rst
@@ -114,6 +114,15 @@ protein, backbone, nucleic, nucleicbackbone
     is identfied by a hard-coded set of residue names so it  may not
     work for esoteric residues.
 
+water
+    selects all atoms that belong to a set of water residues; water
+    is defined with a set of common water abbreviations present in
+    topology files and may not work with certain water residue names.
+    Currently the following water resnames are supported:
+    3 letter resnames: ``H2O``, ``HOH``, ``OH2``, ``HHO``, ``OHH``, ``TIP``,
+    ``T3P``, ``T4P``, ``T5P``, ``SOL``, ``WAT``.
+    4 letter resnames: ``TIP2``, ``TIP3``, ``TIP4``.
+
 segid *seg-name*
     select by segid (as given in the topology), e.g. ``segid 4AKE`` or
     ``segid DMPC``
diff --git a/testsuite/MDAnalysisTests/core/test_atomselections.py b/testsuite/MDAnalysisTests/core/test_atomselections.py
index bced4c43bd..51b395f94c 100644
--- a/testsuite/MDAnalysisTests/core/test_atomselections.py
+++ b/testsuite/MDAnalysisTests/core/test_atomselections.py
@@ -48,6 +48,8 @@
     PDB_helix,
     PDB_elements,
     PDB_charges,
+    waterPSF,
+    PDB_full,
 )
 from MDAnalysisTests import make_Universe
 
@@ -650,6 +652,38 @@ def test_nucleicsugar(self, universe):
         assert_equal(rna.n_atoms, rna.n_residues * 5)
 
 
+class TestSelectionsWater(object):
+    @pytest.fixture(scope='class')
+    def universe(self):
+        return MDAnalysis.Universe(GRO)
+
+    @pytest.fixture(scope='class')
+    def universe2(self):
+        return MDAnalysis.Universe(waterPSF)
+
+    @pytest.fixture(scope='class')
+    def universe3(self):
+        return MDAnalysis.Universe(PDB_full)
+
+    def test_water_gro(self, universe):
+        # Test SOL water with 4 atoms
+        water_gro = universe.select_atoms("water")
+        assert_equal(water_gro.n_atoms, 44336)
+        assert_equal(water_gro.n_residues, 11084)
+
+    def test_water_tip3(self, universe2):
+        # Test TIP3 water with 3 atoms
+        water_tip3 = universe2.select_atoms('water')
+        assert_equal(water_tip3.n_atoms, 15)
+        assert_equal(water_tip3.n_residues, 5)
+
+    def test_water_pdb(self, universe3):
+        # Test HOH water with 1 atom
+        water_pdb = universe3.select_atoms("water")
+        assert_equal(water_pdb.n_residues, 188)
+        assert_equal(water_pdb.n_atoms, 188)
+
+
 class BaseDistanceSelection(object):
     """Both KDTree and distmat selections on orthogonal system