Synonyms for cataract

Grammar : Noun

Spell : kat-uh-rakt

Phonetic Transcription : ˈkæt əˌrækt

Définition of cataract

Origin : early 15c., "a waterfall, floodgate," from Latin cataracta "waterfall," from Greek katarhaktes "waterfall, broken water; a kind of portcullis," noun use of an adjective compound meaning "swooping, down-rushing," from kata "down" (see cata-). The second element is traced either to arhattein "to strike hard" (in which case the compound is kat-arrhattein), or to rhattein "to dash, break."
Its alternative sense in Latin of "portcullis" probably was passed through French to form the English meaning "eye disease" (early 15c.), on the notion of "obstruction" (to eyesight).

noun waterfall

Example sentences :

That river has a cataract or fall, at about an hundred and fifty leagues from its confluence.
Extract from : « The History of Louisiana » by Le Page Du Pratz

A lake had burst on its summit, and the cataract became a falling Ocean.
Extract from : « Vivian Grey » by Earl of Beaconsfield, Benjamin Disraeli

You must be in a hurry to do it, too, coming downstairs like a cataract.
Extract from : « The Christian » by Hall Caine

Lady O'Moy was in an emotional maelstrom that swept her towards a cataract.
Extract from : « The Snare » by Rafael Sabatini

I crossed it dry-shod at day-break, and now, it is a cataract.
Extract from : « The O'Donoghue » by Charles James Lever

He heard it over the noise of the waters he had been swept away from the cataract.
Extract from : « Astounding Stories of Super-Science, June, 1930 » by Various

There was only one thing to be done—he must ride the cataract.
Extract from : « The Adventures of Piang the Moro Jungle Boy » by Florence Partello Stuart

But this cataract of dried leaves, too, is a study in the rhythms of the dead.
Extract from : « The Book of the Damned » by Charles Fort

I paused involuntarily a hundred paces from the brink of the cataract.
Extract from : « Ernest Linwood » by Caroline Lee Hentz

We had noticed this also in Lodore, but in Cataract it was more common.
Extract from : « A Canyon Voyage » by Frederick S. Dellenbaugh

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Based on : Thesaurus.com - Gutenberg.org - Dictionary.com - Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019