quake
noun · verb
Simple meaning
An earthquake, a trembling of the ground with force.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
kwaykIPA pronunciation (US)
ˈkweɪk
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
An earthquake, a trembling of the ground with force.
Shaking and vibration at the surface of the earth resulting from underground movement along a fault plane or from volcanic activity
A trembling or shaking.
figurative
Something devastating, like a strong earthquake.
The 99th sura (chapter) of the Qur'an.
verb
Shake with fast, tremulous movements
Shake with seismic vibrations
intransitive
To tremble or shake.
intransitivefigurative
To be in a state of fear, shock, amazement, etc., such as might cause one to tremble.
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: An earthquake, a trembling of the ground with force.
Used this way, quake 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
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
More ways to use quake
- “A small quake made the dishes rattle in the cupboard this morning.”noun
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More about this wordSynonyms, forms, origin
Synonyms
Sense: shake with fast or tremulous movements
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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.