earthquake
noun · verb
Simple meaning
Shaking and vibration at the surface of the earth resulting from underground movement along a fault plane or from volcanic activity.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
urthkwaykSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
ˈɝθkweɪk
This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.
IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.
Definition
Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.
noun
Shaking and vibration at the surface of the earth resulting from underground movement along a fault plane or from volcanic activity
A shaking of the ground, caused by volcanic activity or movement around geologic faults.
planetary geology
Such a quake specifically occurring on the planet Earth, as opposed to other celestial bodies.
figuratively
A sudden and intense upheaval; a severely disruptive event.
verb
intransitive
To undergo an earthquake.
Word at a Glance
- Difficulty
- B2 · Upper Intermediate
- Frequency
- Moderately Common
- Typical Use
- Varies by meaning
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: Shaking and vibration at the surface of the earth resulting from underground movement along a fault plane or from volcanic activity
Used this way, earthquake is a reasonably familiar word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. It usually sounds natural in a wide range of settings.
- Emotional tone
- Neutral
- Formality
- Neutral
- Intensity
- Not strongly marked
- How common
- Moderately common
- Connotation
- Matter-of-fact
- Usage feel
- Neutral and straightforward
Nearby words
- seism , rarer, so it draws attention
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
More ways to use earthquake
- “Selling the company caused an earthquake among the employees.”noun
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Common Patterns and Combinations
How this word naturally appears with others.
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Word Family
Related forms, grouped by how they connect.
Compound terms
Established multiword terms.
An earthquake at the sea bed.
Related Words
Connected to the same idea, not synonyms.
More about this wordSynonyms, forms, origin
Synonyms
Sense: shaking and vibration at the surface of the earth resulting from underground movement along a fault plane
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Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.