earthquake
Other forms: earthquakes
If you're visiting your friend in California and her house starts to shake, you might be experiencing an earthquake, which is the shaking of the surface of the earth that happens when there's movement deep underground.
Earthquake is one of those words that means exactly what it sounds like: the earth is quaking. Earthquakes happen along "fault lines," the places where the big plates of the earth meet and rub up against each other during volcanic activities. We also use earthquake metaphorically, to talk about something that causes a violent upheaval.
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shaking and vibration at the surface of the earth resulting from underground movement along a fault plane of from volcanic activitytypes:aftershocka tremor (or one of a series of tremors) occurring after the main shock of an earthquakeforeshocka tremor preceding an earthquaketype of:geological phenomenona natural phenomenon involving the structure or composition of the earth
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a disturbance that is extremely disruptive“selling the company caused an earthquake among the employees”type of:commotion, disruption, disturbance, flutter, hoo-ha, hoo-hah, hurly burly, kerfuffle, to-doa disorderly outburst or tumult
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Vocabulary lists containing earthquake
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