A Gram-reaction-negative, strictly aerobic, pale yellow, non-gliding, rod-shaped bacterium, designated DT-LB-19 T , was isolated from the sediment of East Taihu Lake in Jiangsu Province, PR China. Strain DT-LB-19 T showed the highest 16S rRNA gene sequence similarities to members of the genera Algoriella , Chishuiella and Empedobacter (94.84–95.77 %) in the family Weeksellaceae . In phylogenetic trees based on genomes, strain DT-LB-19 T clustered within the genus Empedobacter but formed a separate subclade with a high bootstrap value. The average nucleotide identity and digital DNA–DNA hybridization values between DT-LB-19 T and the closely related type strains were in the range of 82.5–86.9 % and 25.8–32.3 %, respectively. The major cellular fatty acids were iso-C 15 : 0 , iso-C 17 : 0 3-OH, C 16 : 1  ω 5 c , C 16 : 0 , summed feature 4 (iso-C 17 : 1 I and/or anteiso-C 17 : 1 B), summed feature 3 (C 16 : 1  ω7 c and/or C 16 : 1  ω6 c ) and iso-C 15 : 0 3-OH. The predominant menaquinone was menaquinone-6. The polar lipid profile consisted of phosphatidylethanolamine, one glycolipid, two aminophospholipids and five unidentified lipids. The DNA G+C content was 31.8 mol%. Based on the phenotypic, chemotaxonomic, phylogenetic and genomic results, we propose that strain DT-LB-19 T represents a novel species of the genus Empedobacter , for which the name Empedobacter sedimenti sp. nov. is proposed, with strain DT-LB-19 T (=KCTC 82330 T =CCTCC AB 2023026 T = JSACC 11448 T ) as the type strain.