cascade means A number of places in the United States:; An unincorporated community in Plumas County, California. It carries an Arena rating of 1817, earned across 56 head-to-head judged battles.
Among words judged in Lexicurio's Arena, cascade ranks #120 of 17,123 for Most Malleable Words, #121 of 40,231 for Qualifying, #189 of 17,130 for Most Ingenious Words, #237 of 17,115 for Most Vivid Words.
cascade is pronounced /kæsˈkeɪd/.
Why “cascade” is a great word
A series of smaller, successive falls or a tumbling, broken descent. From French cascade, from Italian cascata (“waterfall”), from cascare (“to fall”), from Vulgar Latin *cāsicāre, derived from Latin cadere (“to fall”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *ḱh₂d- (“to fall”). Unlike a “waterfall,” which is a single, monolithic plunge, or a “trickle,” which implies a thin, hesitant seeping, a cascade is a lively, broken continuity. It is water glittering down mossy ledges, auburn hair spilling from a loosened clip, a rapid succession of dominoes falling in a line—a small, beautiful surrender to gravity’s patient logic, where each fall invites the next.
Etymology
From French cascade, from Italian cascata, from cascare (“to fall”), from Vulgar Latin *cāsicāre, derived from Latin cadere, ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *ḱh₂d-.
name
- A number of places in the United States:; An unincorporated community in Plumas County, California.
- A number of places in the United States:; An unincorporated community in Cascade-Chipita Park census-designated place, El Paso County, Colorado.
- A number of places in the United States:; A small city, the county seat of Valley County, Idaho.
- A number of places in the United States:; A city in Dubuque County and Jones County, Iowa.
- A number of places in the United States:; A township in Kent County, Michigan.
- A number of places in the United States:; A township in Olmsted County, Minnesota.
- A number of places in the United States:; An unincorporated community in Wayne County, Missouri.
- A number of places in the United States:; A town in Cascade County, Montana.
- A number of places in the United States:; An unincorporated community in Cherry County, Nebraska.
- A number of places in the United States:; An unincorporated community in the city of Berlin and town of Gorham, Coos County, New Hampshire.
- A number of places in the United States:; An unincorporated community in Putnam County, Ohio.
- A number of places in the United States:; A township in Lycoming County, Pennsylvania.
- A number of places in the United States:; An unincorporated community in Pittsylvania County, Virginia.
- A number of places in the United States:; A neighbourhood of Seattle, Washington.
- A number of places in the United States:; An unincorporated community in Preston County, West Virginia.
noun
- A waterfall or series of small waterfalls.e.g.“Now murm'ring soft, now roaring in cascade.”
- A stream or sequence of a thing or things occurring as if falling like a cascade.e.g.“2001, Richard Restak, The Secret Life of the Brain, Joseph Henry Press
The rise in serotonin levels sets off a cascade of chemical events”
- A series of electrical (or other types of) components, the output of any one being connected to the input of the next.
- A pattern typically performed with an odd number of props, where each prop is caught by the opposite hand.
- A sequence of absurd short messages posted to a newsgroup by different authors, each one responding to the most recent message and quoting the entire sequence to that point (with ever-increasing indentation).e.g.“Don't you hate cascades? I hate cascades!”
- A hairpiece for women consisting of curled locks or a bun attached to a firm base, used to create the illusion of fuller hair.e.g.“A cascade can be added to one or both sides of the band to work well with longer hair.”
- A series of reactions in which the product of one becomes a reactant in the next
verb
- To fall as a waterfall or series of small waterfalls.
- To arrange in a stepped series like a waterfall.e.g.“No matter how you tile or cascade the windows, each window's Minimize, Maximize, and Restore buttons work as usual.”
- To occur as a causal sequence.e.g.“Child folders inherit the configuration of their parent folder, meaning that configuration settings cascade down through an application's virtual folder hierarchy.”
- To pass (something) down through a chain or system in a flow or series of movements.e.g.“Relief arrived at Cardiff Canton depot on 1 September in the shape of the first of 12 Class 170 units cascaded from Greater Anglia.”
- To vomit.e.g.“Then he began to choke. The next thing I knew, he cascaded onto my new carpet.”
Words closest in meaning
By meaning, not spelling — each word's AI semantic fingerprint, nearest first.