earthquake
A shaking of the ground, caused by volcanic activity or movement around geologic faults.
Other meanings
Such a quake specifically occurring on the planet Earth, as opposed to other celestial bodies.
A sudden and intense upheaval; a severely disruptive event.
Related words
- birthquake
- earthquaky
- footquake
- megaearthquake
- mirthquake
- earthquakeproof
- non-earthquake
- paleoearthquake
- microearthquake
- earthquake engineering
- postearthquake
- antiearthquake
Example sentences
Word history
From Middle English "erthequake".
Where this comes from
This definition is adapted from “earthquake” on Wiktionary, by its contributors; example sentences are from Tatoeba, credited to their authors above, published under CC BY-SA 4.0. This page is published under the same licence.