waterfall

waterfall

English

Goðafoss, a waterfall in Iceland

Etymology

From Middle English waterfal, waterfalle, from Old English wæterġefeall (“waterfall”), equivalent to water +‎ fall. Cognate with West Frisian wetterfal (“waterfall”), Dutch waterval (“waterfall”), German Wasserfall (“waterfall”), Swedish vattenfall (“waterfall”).

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈwɔːtəfɔːl/
• (US) enPR: wôʹtər-fôl, IPA^(key): /ˈwɔtɚfɔl/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɔːl

Noun

waterfall (plural waterfalls)

1. A flow of water over the edge of a cliff.

   Synonyms: cataract, cascade

2. (figuratively) A waterfall-like outpouring of liquid, smoke, etc.

   A waterfall of mist came from the open freezer.

3. (technical, computing, slang) Waterfall model

   A very long duration project […] had taken a whole group of people through a painful waterfall development process.

4. (slang, US) The action of drinking from a vessel without touching it with the lips, considered more sanitary for a shared vessel.

   Hey man, can I take a waterfall from your bottle?

5. (colloquial, dated) A necktie.
6. (colloquial, dated) A chignon.

Synonyms

• (flow of water over the edge a cliff): cascade, cataract, sault

Derived terms

Derived terms

• coastal waterfall
• waterfall bong
• waterfall effect

• waterfall illusion
• waterfall model
• waterfall stomach

Translations

flow of water over the edge of a cliff

Adyghe: псыкъефэх (psəqefăx) Afrikaans: waterval (af) Ainu: ソ (so) Albanian: ujëvarë (sq) f, skuranë Amharic: ፏፏቴ (fwafwatē) Apache: Western Apache: túnálį́į́’ Arabic: شَلَّال‎ m (šallāl) Hijazi Arabic: شَلَّال‎ m (šallāl) Aragonese: salto d'augua m Armenian: ջրվեժ (hy) (ǰrvež) Asturian: catarata f Azerbaijani: şəlalə (az) Bashkir: шарлауыҡ (šarlawïq) Basque: ur-jauzi Belarusian: вадаспа́д m (vadaspád) Bengali: জলপ্রপাত (jôlôprôpat) Brunei Bisaya: wasai Bulgarian: водопа́д m (vodopád) Burmese: ရေတံခွန် (my) (retamhkwan) Catalan: cascada (ca) f Cebuano: busay Central Dusun: wasai Cherokee: ᎠᎹᏍᎧᎦᎯ (amaskagahi) Chichewa: dziwe Chinese: Cantonese: 瀑布 (buk6 bou3) Hakka: 瀑布 (phau-pu) Mandarin: 瀑布 (zh) (pùbù) Min Dong: 瀑布 (bŭk-buó) Min Nan: 瀑布 (zh-min-nan) (pho̍k-pò͘) Chuvash: шарлак (šarlak) Coastal Kadazan: vasai Czech: vodopád (cs) m Danish: vandfald (da) n Dupaningan Agta: tapaw Dutch: waterval (nl) f Eastern Bontoc: oto Esperanto: akvofalo (eo), kaskado Estonian: kosk, juga Faroese: fossur (fo) m Fijian: savu (fj) Finnish: vesiputous (fi) French: cascade (fr) f, chute d'eau (fr) f Galician: fervenza f cadoiro m cachoeira f, freixa, seimeira (gl) f, cenza f Georgian: ჩანჩქერი (čančkeri) German: Wasserfall (de) m (common), Katarakt (de) m Greek: καταρράκτης (el) m (katarráktis) Ancient: καταρράκτης m (katarrháktēs) Guaraní: ytu, chororo Gujarati: ધોધ m (dhōdha) Haitian Creole: kaskad Hawaiian: wailele Hebrew: מַפַּל מַיִם‎ (he) m (mapál máyim) Hindi: जलप्रपात (hi) m (jalaprapāt), आबशार (ābśār), झरना (hi) m (jharnā) Hungarian: vízesés (hu) Icelandic: foss (is) m Ido: aquofalo (io) Igbo: nsụda mmiri Ilocano: dissuor Indonesian: air terjun (id) Inuktitut: ᖁᖅᓗᕐᓂᖅ (quqlurniq) Iranun: aig a tibpu' Irish: eas (ga) m Italian: cascata (it) f Japanese: 滝 (ja) (たき, taki), 瀑布 (ja) (ばくふ, bakufu) Javanese: ꦒꦿꦺꦴꦗꦺꦴꦒꦤ꧀ (jv) (grojogan) Kannada: ಜಲಪಾತ (kn) (jalapāta), ಧಬಧಬೆ (kn) (dhabadhabe), ಅಬ್ಬಿ (kn) (abbi), ಜೋಗು (kn) (jōgu), ನೀರಿನ ಬೀಳು (kn) (nīrina bīḷu) Kapampangan: tulari Karachay-Balkar: чучхур (çuçhur) Kazakh: құлама (qulama), сарқырама (kk) (sarqırama) Khmer: ទឹកធ្លាក់ (tɨk thlĕək) Kimaragang: vasoi Korean: 폭포 (ko) (pokpo) (瀑布 (ko)) Kumyk: шаршар (şarşar) Kurdish: gilale (ku) Kyrgyz: шаркыратма (ky) (şarkıratma), шаркырама (ky) (şarkırama) Lao: ນ້ຳຕົກຕາດ (nam tok tāt), ນ້ຳຕົກ (nam tok), ຕົກຕາດ (tok tāt), ນ້ຳຕາດ (nam tāt), ນ້ຳໂຕນຕາດ (nam tōn tāt), ນ້ຳໂຕນຜາ (nam tōn phā), ໂຕນຕາດ (tōn tāt) Latin: cataracta Latvian: ūdenskritums m Lithuanian: krioklys m Lotud: wasai Lubuagan Kalinga: teub

Luxembourgish: Waasserfall m Lü: please add this translation if you can Macedonian: во́допад m (vódopad) Malagasy: riana (mg), rian-drano (mg) Malay: air terjun, air memancur Malayalam: വെള്ളച്ചാട്ടം (veḷḷaccāṭṭaṃ) Maltese: kaskata f Manchu: ᡨᡠᡵᠠᡴᡡ (turakū) Manx: eas m Maori: tāheke, hīrere, hohō Mapudungun: trayken Marathi: धबधबा m (dhabadhbā) Mari: Eastern Mari: вӱдшуҥгалтыш (vüdšuŋgaltəš) Mongolian: хүрхрээ (mn) (hürhree) Navajo: hadahiilį́ Nepali: झरना (ne) (jharanā) Newari: झ्वाला (jhvālā) Northern Thai: please add this translation if you can Norwegian: Bokmål: foss (no) m, fossefall n, vannfall n Nynorsk: foss (nn) m, fossefall n, vassfall n Occitan: cascada (oc) f, chorrèra (oc) f Old Norse: fors Oromo: finchaa (om) Persian: آبشار‎ (fa) (âbšâr) Pitjantjatjara: waḻa Polish: wodospad (pl) m Portuguese: cachoeira (pt) f, queda-d'água (pt) f, cascata (pt) f, salto (pt) m, catarata (pt) Punjabi: ਝਰਨਾ m (jharnā) Quechua: phaqcha, pagca, pagza Romanian: cascadă (ro) f Rungus: vosoi Russian: водопа́д (ru) m (vodopád) Sanskrit: जलपात m (jalapāta), जलप्रपात (sa) m (jalaprapāta) Scottish Gaelic: linne f, eas m Serbo-Croatian: Cyrillic: водопад m, слап m, бук m Roman: vȍdopād (sh) m, slȃp (sh) m, bȗk (sh) m Shan: please add this translation if you can Shona: mapopoma Sinhalese: දිය ඇල්ල (diya ælla) Skolt Sami: kuõškk Slovak: vodopád m Slovene: slap (sl) m Somali: biyo-dhac Southern Kalinga: pakungupung, poy-asan Spanish: catarata (es) f, cascada (es) f, caída de agua f Sundanese: curug (su) Swahili: maanguko class 5/6 Swedish: vattenfall (sv) n Tagal Murut: bosoi Tagalog: talon Tajik: обшор (obšor), шаршара (šaršara), шалола (šalola) Tambunan Dusun: wasai Tamil: நீர்வீழ்ச்சி (ta) (nīrvīḻcci) Tatar: шарлавык (tt) (şarlawıq) Telugu: జలపాతము (te) (jalapātamu) Thai: น้ำตก (náam-dtòk) Tibetan: བབས་ཆུ (babs chu) Timugon Murut: bosoi Turkish: şelale (tr), çağlayan (tr) Turkmen: şaglawuk Ukrainian: водоспа́д (uk) m (vodospád) Urdu: آبشار‎ (ur) (ābśār) Uyghur: شارقىراتما‎ (sharqiratma) Uzbek: sharshara (uz), shalola (uz) Vietnamese: thác nước (vi), thác (vi) Voro: viisadang Waray-Waray: tubighóg Welsh: rhaeadr f, pistyll m, sgwd m West Coast Bajau: boe' pansur West Frisian: wetterfal Westrobothnian: sput m, fell n White Hmong: please add this translation if you can Xhosa: ingxangxasi class 9/10 Yakut: күрүлгэн (kürülgen) Yiddish: וואַסערפֿאַל‎ (vaserfal) Yoruba: isosileomi Zhuang: raemxgienghdat Zulu: impophoma class 9/10

waterfall-like outpouring

Arabic: شَلَّال‎ m (šallāl) Chinese: Mandarin: 瀑布 (zh) (pùbù) Czech: vodopád (cs) m Dutch: waterval (nl) f Finnish: hyöky German: Wasserfall (de) m, Kaskade (de) f Hebrew: מפל‎ (he) m (mapál) Italian: cascata (it) f Japanese: 滝 (ja) (たき, taki) Kannada: ಅಬ್ಬಿ (kn) (abbi) Macedonian: во́допад m (vódopad)

Norwegian: foss (no) m Persian: آبشار‎ (fa) (âbšâr), فوران‎ (fa) (favarân) Polish: wodospad (pl) m Portuguese: cascata (pt) f Romanian: cascadă (ro) f Russian: водопа́д (ru) m (vodopád), каска́д (ru) m (kaskád) Serbo-Croatian: Cyrillic: водопад m Roman: vȍdopād (sh) m Spanish: cascada (es) f Swedish: vattenfall (sv) n, fors (sv) c Welsh: rhaeadr, pistyll, sgwd

The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables, removing any numbers. Numbers do not necessarily match those in definitions. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout#Translations.

Translations to be checked

Esperanto: (please verify) akvofalo (eo) Ido: (please verify) kaskado (io), (please verify) aquofalo (io) Indonesian: (please verify) air terjun (id) Malayalam: (please verify) വെള്ളച്ചാട്ടം (veḷḷaccāṭṭaṃ)

Maltese: (please verify) nixxiegħa f Tamil: (please verify) நீர்வீழ்ச்சி (ta) (nīrvīḻcci) Telugu: (please verify) జలపాతం (te) (jalapātaṃ)

Verb

waterfall (third-person singular simple present waterfalls, present participle waterfalling, simple past and past participle waterfalled)

1. (intransitive) To fall like a waterfall.
   • 1994, Nora Roberts, Private Scandals, page 54:

     Rain ran off the bill of his fielder's cap and waterfalled in front of his face.

   • 1999, Jane Yolen; Bruce Coville, Armageddon Summer‎, page 79:

     Zondra, whose dirty-blond hair waterfalled above her head from a colorful tie, gave a snorting, horsey kind of laugh.

   • 2008, John Gardner, No Human Enemy‎, page 156:

     they turned into the drive of The Manor with its red-brick front and the wonderful cloak of Virginia creeper waterfalling down between the windows.

Derived terms

• waterfalled
• waterfalling

See also

• smokefall