avalanche
/ˈævəlæn(t)ʃ/
Word Rarity
Rare
Frequency: 3.48 in modern English
17
Scrabble Score
9
Letters
3
Syllables
7
Unique Chars
Meaning
noun
A large mass or body of snow and ice sliding swiftly down a mountain side, or falling down a precipice.
noun
A sudden, great, or irresistible descent or influx; anything like an avalanche in suddenness and overwhelming quantity.
Example Sentences
- "They were drinking from a fountain / That was pouring like an avalanche / Coming down the mountain"
- "Yes, but she talked it away. She uses a whole language to herself. Her discourse is an avalanche of words, beneath which the hearers are overwhelmed."
- "I stepped into an avalanche, it covered up my soul"
- "The apparent success of the City and South London triggered an avalanche of bills for Tube railways, and in 1892 a Joint Select Committee of Parliament set out some ground rules."
- "Whenever the stage stopped to change horses, we would wake up, and try to recollect where we were—[…] We began to get into country, now, threaded here and there with little streams. These had high, steep banks on each side, and every time we flew down one bank and scrambled up the other, our party inside got mixed somewhat. First we would all be down in a pile at the forward end of the stage, nearly in a sitting posture, and in a second we would shoot to the other end, and stand on our heads. […] ¶ Every time we avalanched from one end of the stage to the other, the Unabridged Dictionary would come too; and every time it came it damaged somebody."
- "Soon the sun’s warmth makes them shed crystal shells Shattering and avalanching on the snow-crust—"
Etymology
From French avalanche, from Franco-Provençal (Savoy) avalançhe, blend of aval (“downhill”) and standard lavençhe, from Vulgar Latin *labanka (compare Occitan lavanca, Italian valanga), of uncertain origin, perhaps an alteration of Late Latin lābīna (“landslide”) (compare Franco-Provençal (Dauphiné) lavino, Romansh lavina), from Latin lābēs, from lābor (“to slip, slide”).
Origin
- Source language: French
Word Breakdown
- Root: avalanche, -, *labanka, lābīna, lābēs
Regional Pronunciation
- American English: /ˈævəlæn(t)ʃ/
- British English: /ˈævəlɑːnʃ/