Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
Definition: Waterfall |
WaterfallNoun1. A steep descent of the water of a river. Source: WordNet 1.7.1 Copyright © 2001 by Princeton University. All rights reserved. |
Date "waterfall" was first used in popular English literature: sometime before 1321. (references) |
| Domain | Definition |
Dream Interpretation | To dream of a waterfall, foretells that you will secure your wildest desire, and fortune will be exceedingly favorable to your progress. Source: Ten Thousand Dreams Interpreted .... |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
(From Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia)
Tower Fall in Yellowstone National Park
larger versionA waterfall is usually a geological formation resulting from a stream flowing over an erosion-resistant rock formation that forms a sudden break in elevation. Waterfalls may also be artificial, and they are sometimes used for garden and landscape ornament.
Some waterfalls form in montane environments where erosion is rapid and stream courses may be subject to sudden and catastrophic change. In such cases, the waterfall may not be the end product of many years of water action over a region, but rather the result of relatively sudden geological processes such as thrust faults or volcanic action.
Most waterfalls are the result of many years' of action of water on the underlying strata. Typically, a stream will flow across an area of formations, and more resistant rock strata will form shelves across the streamway, elevated above the further stream bed when the less erosion-resistant rock around it disappears. Over a period of years, the edges of this shelf will gradually break away and the waterfall will steadily move upstream. Often, the rock strata just below the more resistant shelf will be of a softer type, and will erode out to form a shallow cave-like formation known as a rock shelter (also known as a rock house) under and behind the waterfall.
Streams often become wider and more shallow just above waterfalls due to flowing over the rock shelf, and there is usually a deep pool just below the waterfall due to the kinetic energy of the water hitting the bottom.
Waterfalls are a hindrance to river transportation. The Welland Canal was built in 1829 to allow ships to pass Niagara Falls in the Great Lakes.
Notable waterfalls include:
See also: List of waterfalls
- Angel Falls, the world's highest at 1000 m (3281 feet), in Venezuela in South America
- Victoria Falls, the world's largest, in Africa, on the Zambezi River on the border between Zambia and Zimbabwe
- Boyoma Falls, the world's highest volume, 17,000,000 liters per second (600,000 cubic feet per second), Congo River, Congo
- Yosemite Falls, the tallest in North America in Yosemite National Park in California, United States.
- Niagara Falls, the best-known in North America, located on the Niagara River on the border between New York, United States, and Ontario, Canada
- Iguaçú Falls, in South America, on the Iguaçu River on the border between Brazil and Argentina
- Cumberland Falls, a North American waterfall advertised to have a "moonbow"; located in southeast Kentucky
- Rhine Falls, Europe's largest, located in Switzerland
- Reichenbach Falls, Switzerland, total drop 250 m (656 feet), at 90 m (300 feet) the Upper Reichenbach Falls is one of the highest cataracts in the Alps. Scene of the final fictional meeting between Sherlock Holmes and Professor Moriarty.
- The Falls of Saint Anthony, the highest on the Mississippi.
External Link
- List of notable waterfalls
Source: adapted by the editor from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia under a copyleft GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL) from the article "Waterfall."
Synonyms: WaterfallSynonyms: cascade (n), cataract (n), falls (n). (additional references) |
Crosswords: Waterfall |
| English words defined with "waterfall": angel, Angel Falls ♦ Cuquenan, Cuquenan Falls ♦ Guaira, Guaira Falls ♦ icefall, Iguassu, Iguassu Falls, Iguazu, Iguazu Falls ♦ Kukenaam, Kukenaam Falls ♦ Lyn ♦ Niagara, Niagara Falls ♦ Overfall ♦ Paulo Afonso, Paulo Afonso Falls ♦ Sete Quedas, spray ♦ Takkakaw, Tugela, Tugela Falls, twin, Twin Falls ♦ Urubupunga, Urubupunga Falls ♦ Victoria, Victoria Falls. (references) |
| Specialty definitions using "waterfall": Dab, Din ♦ Lenard effect ♦ permanent monument ♦ spiral model ♦ Waterfall Model. (references) |
| Etymologies containing "waterfall": Sasse. (references) |
| Domain | Usage | |
Screenplays | Me mind is a raging torrent flooded with rivulets of thought cascading in a waterfall of creative alternatives (Blazing Saddles ; writing credit: Andrew Bergman, Mel Brooks, Richard Pryor, Norman Steinberg, Alan Uger) Don't tell me: We're about to go over a huge waterfall. (The Emperor's New Groove; writing credit: Chris Williams; Mark Dindal) Meanwhile, at a very expensive waterfall set (George of the Jungle; writing credit: Jay Ward; Dana Olsen) No other factory in the world mixes its chocolate by waterfall. But it's the only way if you want it just right (Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory; writing credit: Roald Dahl) | |
Lyrics | And down the waterfall (Angels; performing artist: Robbie Williams) Your love for me came as a waterfall (Gotta Tell You; performing artist: Samantha Mumba) There's a dead salmon frozen in a waterfall (King Of Pain; performing artist: The Police) All along the waterfall (Brown Eyed Girl; performing artist: VAN MORRISON) | |
Movie/TV Titles | A Wonderful Waterfall (1901) Switzerland Great Waterfall of the Rhein at Schaffhausen (1901) Behind the Waterfall (1995) The House on the Waterfall (1989) | |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | ||
| Domain | Title | ||
References | |||
Books | |||
Theater & Movies | |||
Music |
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Consumer Goods | |||
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |||
| Thumbnail | Description & Credit | Thumbnail | Description & Credit |
 | Waterfall at Nazan Bay. Credit: Coast & Geodetic Survey Historical Image Collection. |  | Taking in the glories of nature Picnic and swim at a Palawan waterfall. Credit: Coast & Geodetic Survey Historical Image Collection. |
 | Small waterfall in Grand Portage National Monument. Credit: America's Coastlines. |  | Tropical waterfall in Western Samoa not far from Robert Louis Stevenson home. Credit: America's Coastlines. |
 | Salmon jumping up a waterfall below the old Selzer Dam. Removal of the dam added 10 miles of spawning habitat to the 15 mile stretch of Clear Creek. Credit: Gary Kramer. |  | Waterfall in Yosemite National Park, California. Credit: Ron Nichols. |
 | Water cascades over rocks in a small waterfall in a coldwater stream in northeastern Iowa. Credit: Lynn Betts. |  | Waterfall along the Columbia Gorge. Credit: Sara Wilson. |
 | A small waterfall fills into a pool in the Arizona wilderness. Credit: Unknown. |  | Forest waterfall in western Oregon. Credit: Unknown. |
Source: pictures compiled by the editor from various references; see picture credits. | |||
 |  |
| "Waterfall" by Alan Willoughby Commentary: "Some of the most beautiful falls in PA." | "Waterfall" by Donall O'Cleirigh Commentary: "Cascading waterfall." |
Source: photographs selected by the editor, with permission from the photographers. | |
| "Waterfall" is generally used as a noun (singular) -- approximately 96.76% of the time. "Waterfall" is used about 339 times out of a sample of 100 million words spoken or written in English. Its rank is based on over 700,000 words used in the English language. Some parts-of-speech are not covered due to the samples used by the British National Corpus. (note: percents less than one-hundredth of one percent have been omitted) |
| Parts of Speech | Percent | Usage per 100 Million Words | Rank in English |
| Noun (singular) | 96.76% | 328 | 15,879 |
| Noun (proper) | 2.65% | 9 | 117,287 |
| Lexical Verb (base form) | 0.59% | 2 | 245,945 |
| Total | 100.00% | 339 | N/A |
Source: compiled by the editor from several corpora; see credits.
| The following table summarizes the usage of "waterfall" based on a population census conducted in the United States. Ranks and frequencies are based on all names reported and classified. |
| Name | Usage/Gender | Usage per 100 million Persons | Rank in USA |
| Waterfall | Last name | 170 | 48,716 |
| Source: compiled by the editor from several corpora; see credits. | |||
| Country | Name |
| United Kingdom | Waterfall Holdings Plc |
| (more examples...) |
Source: compiled by the editor from Icon Group International, Inc.
1. Waterfall, PA |
Expression using "waterfall": waterfall Model. Additional references. | |
| Hyphenated Usage | |
Beginning with "waterfall": waterfall-collection. | |
Ending with "waterfall": bubbly-waterfall. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| The following statistics estimate the number of searches per day across the major English-language search engines as identified by various trade publications. Hyperlinks lead to commercial use of the expression at Amazon.com. |
| Expression | Frequency per Day | Expression | Frequency per Day |
waterfall | 20,537 | north carolina waterfall | 76 |
indoor waterfall | 2,929 | waterfall screen saver | 75 |
garden waterfall | 1,734 | rock waterfall | 74 |
outdoor waterfall | 1,313 | waterfall design | 73 |
waterfall picture | 471 | hawaii waterfall | 68 |
pond waterfall | 432 | waterfall pump | 67 |
waterfall screensaver | 294 | waterfall pic | 64 |
waterfall wallpaper | 246 | waterfall background | 63 |
living waterfall | 235 | michigan waterfall | 62 |
backyard waterfall | 197 | landscaping waterfall | 61 |
pool waterfall | 194 | fountain waterfall | 56 |
build a waterfall | 161 | animated waterfall | 50 |
building a waterfall | 143 | free waterfall wallpaper | 49 |
free waterfall screensaver | 136 | fiberglass waterfall | 48 |
living screensaver waterfall | 103 | lyrics tlc waterfall | 47 |
landscape waterfall | 87 | waterfall kit | 44 |
oregon waterfall | 83 | lyrics waterfall | 43 |
waterfall photo | 80 | living saver screen waterfall | 41 |
waterfall construction | 78 | tropical waterfall | 41 |
swimming pool waterfall | 77 | pond waterfall picture | 39 |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |||
| Language | Translations for "waterfall"; alternative meanings/domain in parentheses. | |
Albanian | ujëvarë (cascade, cataract, chute, fall, Linn, water power). (various references) | |
Arabic | مسقط ماء, شلال (cataract, chute, falls). (various references) | |
Asturian | tabayón. (various references) | |
Bemba | cipoma. (various references) | |
Blackfoot | ohpsskonaka'si. (various references) | |
Bulgarian | водопад (cataract, chute, fall, falls). (various references) | |
Cebuano | busay. (various references) | |
Chinese | 瀑布 . (various references) | |
Cornish | dowrlam. (various references) | |
Czech | vodopád (cataract, water-fall). (various references) | |
Danish | vandfald. (various references) | |
Dutch | waterval. (various references) | |
Ecuadorian Quechua | p'agcha. (various references) | |
Esperanto | kaskado, falakvo, akvofalo. (various references) | |
Faeroese | fossur. (various references) | |
Farsi | ابشار (Fall). (various references) | |
Finnish | vesiputous (cascade, cataract, falls), putous (falls). (various references) | |
French | cascade, chute d'eau. (various references) | |
Frisian | wetterfal. (various references) | |
German | Wasserfall (cascade, cataract, fall), Kaskade (acrobatic leap, cascade). (various references) | |
Greek | υδατόπτωση (cascade, chute). (various references) | |
Hebrew | מפל מים (cascade, cataract, fall), אשדה (declivity, slope of a mountain), אשד (cascade, cataract, chute, rapid). (various references) | |
Hungarian | vízesés (cascade, cataract, chute, fall, falls). (various references) | |
Icelandic | foss. (various references) | |
Indonesian | air terjun (cataract, chute). (various references) | |
Inuktitut | kuukjuaq. (various references) | |
Irish | eas. (various references) | |
Italian | cascata (cascade, fall). (various references) | |
Japanese Kanji | 滝 . (various references) | |
Japanese Katakana | たき (digression, many divergences), ひせん (humble, low class, lowly), ばくふ (bakufu, shogunate), ウォーターフォール , ウォータフォール . (various references) | |
Korean | 폭포 (Cascade, Cascades). (various references) | |
Macedonian | vodopad. (various references) | |
Malay | air-terjun. (various references) | |
Manx | lhieggey ushtey (cascade, chute), eas (cascade, cataract, chute, shoot). (various references) | |
Maori | rere (flight, to fly). (various references) | |
Norwegian | foss (falls). (various references) | |
Occitan | cascade. (various references) | |
Pig Latin | aterfallway.(various references) | |
Portuguese | cascata (riffle), cachoeira (cataract, linn, overfall, rapids). (various references) | |
Provencal | cascada. (various references) | |
Romanian | urlãtoare, sãritoare, cascadã (cascade, chute, fall, falls, ripple), cãdere de apã (chute, fall, plop). (various references) | |
Romansch | cascada. (various references) | |
Ruanda | ahagwa amazi. (various references) | |
Russian | водопад (cascade, cataract, water-fall). (various references) | |
Samoan | afu. (various references) | |
Scottish | uar, eas (a waterfall, cascade, cataract). (various references) | |
Serbo-Croatian | vodopad, slap (cascade, chute, overfall, riffle). (various references) | |
Shona | bopoma. (various references) | |
Spanish | cascada (cascade, fall). (various references) | |
Sranan | sula. (various references) | |
Swazi | lí-bhudlo. (various references) | |
Swedish | vattenfall (chute, fall, falls, Linn). (various references) | |
Turkish | şelâle (cascade, cataract, fall), çağlayan (cascade, cataract, chute, fall). (various references) | |
Turkmen | юaglawuk. (various references) | |
Ukrainian | каскад (cascade), водоспад (cataract, falls, shoot). (various references) | |
Vietnamese | thác nước. (various references) | |
Welsh | sgwd (cataract), rhaeadr (cataract). (various references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various translation references. | ||
| Language | Period | Translations |
| Latin | 500 BCE-Modern | catadupa, cataracta. (various references) |
| Italian | 900-Modern | cascata. (various references) |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references. | ||
Derivations | |
Words beginning with "waterfall": waterfalls. (additional references) | |
| |
"Waterfall" is suggested in spellcheckers for the following: Hatherall, Vatenfall, waterfalll, watergall. (additional references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor, based on several corpora (additional references). | |
| # of Phoneme Matches | Pronunciation | Word(s) rhyming with "waterfall" (pronounced wô"terfô'l) |
| 3 | -f ô' l | downfall, footfall, landfall, nightfall, pitfall, pratfall, rainfall, shortfall, windfall. |
Source: compiled by the editor (additional references); see credits. | ||
Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams | |
| Words within the letters "a-a-e-f-l-l-r-t-w" | |
-1 letter: flatware. | |
-2 letters: lateral. | |
-3 letters: faller, falter, refall, taller, wafter, wallet. | |
-4 letters: after, alate, alert, altar, alter, areal, artal, artel, aware, farle, fatal, fatwa, fella, feral, fetal, flare, later, ratal, ratel, reata, talar, taler, tawer, trawl, wafer, waler, walla, water. | |
-5 letters: afar, alae, alar, alef, alfa, area, earl, fall, fare, farl, fate, feal, fear, feat, fell. | |
| Words containing the letters "a-a-e-f-l-l-r-t-w" | |
+1 letter: waterfalls. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. SCRABBLE® is a registered trademark. All intellectual property rights in and to the game are owned in the U.S.A and Canada by Hasbro Inc., and throughout the rest of the world by J.W. Spear & Sons Limited of Maidenhead, Berkshire, England, a subsidiary of Mattel Inc. Mattel and Spear are not affiliated with Hasbro. | |
| 1. Definition 2. Synonyms 3. Crosswords 4. Usage: Modern | 5. Usage: Commercial 6. Images: Slideshow 7. Images: Photo Album 8. Images: Digital Art | 9. Usage Frequency 10. Names: Frequency 11. Names: Company Usage 12. Cities | 13. Expressions 14. Expressions: Internet 15. Translations: Modern 16. Translations: Ancient | 17. Derivations 18. Rhymes 19. Anagrams 20. Bibliography |
Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
