quake
/kweɪk/
Word Rarity
Rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 3.45 in modern English
18
Scrabble Score
5
Letters
1
Syllables
5
Unique Chars
Meaning
noun
An earthquake, a trembling of the ground with force.
noun
Something devastating, like a strong earthquake.
Example Sentences
- "We felt a quake in the apartment every time the train went by."
- "California is plagued by quakes; there are a few minor ones almost every month."
- "Well, everybody talks about the California quakes But the first time I ever felt the earth shake Was in Miami, when Amy touched me."
- "But HS1 was more exposed to the COVID quake than most given its inherent reliance on international travel, which had collapsed, leaving cross-Channel operator Eurostar stacked with millions of debt."
- "I felt the ground quaking beneath my feet."
- "Dorus threw Pamela behind a tree; where she stood quaking like the partridge on which the hawk is even ready to seize."
Etymology
From Middle English quaken, from Old English cwacian (“to quake, tremble, chatter”), from Proto-Germanic *kwakōną (“to shake, quiver, tremble”), itself likely of imitative origin. Related to Old English cweċċan (“to shake, swing, move, vibrate, shake off, give up”) (see quitch), Dutch kwakkelen (“to ail, be ailing”), German Quackelei (“chattering”), Danish kvakle (“to bungle”), Latin vexō (“toss, shake violently, jostle, vex”), Irish bogadh (“a move, movement, shift, change”).
Origin
Word Breakdown
- Root: quaken, cwacian, *kwakōną
Regional Pronunciation
- American English: /kweɪk/
- British English: /kweɪk/