torrent

/ˈtɔrənt/

/ˈtɔrɪnt/

Other forms: torrents

A torrent is a heavy rain, or the flooding or wildly-running streams it causes, like the torrent that soaks everyone unlucky enough to be out on the street at that moment.

Because the noun torrent literally means "rushing stream," it often describes fast-flowing water, like a rainstorm or creeks and rivers that overflow their banks. But the word can also describe any sudden inundation, like a deluge of words or thoughts, like when, in anger, you unleash a torrent of emotional words on your friend. Like a violent storm, you pour those words, not letting up in order to let him or her explain the other side of the story.

Definitions of torrent

1. noun

   an overwhelming number or amount
   “a torrent of abuse”

   synonyms: barrage, deluge, flood, flurry, inundation

   type of:

   batch, deal, flock, good deal, great deal, hatful, heap, lot, mass, mess, mickle, mint, mountain, muckle, passel, peck, pile, plenty, pot, quite a little, raft, sight, slew, spate, stack, tidy sum, wad

   (often followed by `of') a large number or amount or extent
2. noun

   a heavy rain
   synonyms: cloudburst, deluge, downpour, pelter, soaker, waterspout

   type of:

   rain, rainfall

   water falling in drops from vapor condensed in the atmosphere
3. noun

   a violently fast stream of water (or other liquid)
   “the houses were swept away in the torrent”

   synonyms: violent stream

   type of:

   current, stream

   a steady flow of a fluid (usually from natural causes)