cataract
/ˈkætəˌɹæk(t)/
Word Rarity
Rare
Frequency: 2.97 in modern English
12
Scrabble Score
8
Letters
3
Syllables
4
Unique Chars
Meaning
noun
A (large) waterfall, specifically one flowing over the edge of a cliff.
noun
An overwhelming downpour or rush; a flood.
noun
A type of governor used in single-acting steam engines, where a flow of water through an opening regulates the stroke.
Example Sentences
- "The cataracts on the Nile helped to compartment Upper Egypt."
- "This Elephantis being an Iſland, is inhabited beneath the lovveſt cataract or fall of vvater three miles, and aboue Syene 16: […]"
- "[T]he Salmon ſeekes a freſher ſtreame to find / […] and ſtems the vvatry tract / VVhere Tivy falling dovvne, doth make a Cataract, / Forc't by the riſing Rocks that there her courſe oppoſe, […]"
- "[C]oming dovvn farther the ſame River, they heard a terrible Noiſe in the River, as of a mighty Cataract, or VVater-fall, vvhich increaſed as they came forvvard, till it grevv ſo loud, that they could not hear themſelves ſpeak, much leſs hear one another."
- "The sounding cataract / Haunted me like a passion: the tall rock, / The mountain, and the deep and gloomy wood, / Their colours and their forms, were then to me / An appetite: […]"
- "[S]uch a violent ſtorme of raine vnburthened it ſelfe neere this place, and cauſed ſuch a ſudden Deluge and Cattaract, that a Carrauan of tvvo thouſand Camels periſht, and vvere caſt avvay by it."
Etymology
PIE word *ḱóm The noun is derived from cataracts (noun (plural only)), from Late Middle English cataract, cataracta, cateract, cateracte (“floodgate of heaven”), from Old French cataracte (modern French cataracte), and from its etymon Latin cataracta (“floodgate; waterfall”), from Ancient Greek καταρ(ρ)άκτης (katar(rh)áktēs, “(noun) waterfall; (adjective) rushing downwards”), from καταρ(ρ)ᾱ́σσω (katar(rh)ā́ssō, “to pour down; to rush downwards”) + -της (-tēs, suffix forming nouns denoting a state of being). Καταρ(ρ)ᾱ́σσω (Katar(rh)ā́ssō) is derived either: * from κᾰτᾰ- (kătă-, prefix meaning ‘downwards’) + ἀρᾰ́σσω (arắssō, “to dash to pieces; to strike”) (further etymology unknown, possibly onomatopoeic) or ῥᾱ́σσω (rhā́ssō, “to dash; to strike”) (possibly ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *wreh₂ǵʰ- (“to pound, strike”)); or * from καταρρηγνύναι (katarrhēgnúnai, “to break down”). The verb is derived from the noun.
Origin
Word Breakdown
- Root: *wreh₂ǵʰ-, cataract, cataracte, cataracta, καταρράκτης, *kleh₂w-
Regional Pronunciation
- American English: /ˈkætəˌɹæk(t)/
- British English: /ˈkætəɹækt/
Usage
Subject
Wiktionary places this term in Medicine.