Link Centre Dictionary

avalanche

ava·lanche

UK/ˈævəlɑːnʃ/ US/ˈævəlæn(t)ʃ/ fairly common
noun (2) verb (1)

noun

1.

a slide of large masses of snow and ice and mud down a mountain

2.

a sudden appearance of an overwhelming number of things

  • “the program brought an avalanche of mail”

verb

1.

of snow masses in the mountains

Synonyms

Origin

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”).

Phrases

  • avalanche effect
  • avalanche lily
  • electron avalanche
  • slab avalanche
  • Townsend avalanche
  • word avalanche

Related words

Word family

Broader terms

Narrower terms

WordNet 2.1 (Princeton University). Wiktionary (CC BY-SA). CMU Pronouncing Dictionary. WordNet 2.1 Copyright Princeton University. All rights reserved. Wiktionary content is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike Licence.