avalanche

UK: /ˈævəlɑːntʃ/ US: /ˈævəˌlæntʃ/ ,(av′ə lanch′, -länch′)

Inflections of 'avalanche' (v): (⇒ conjugate)

avalanches

v 3rd person singular

avalanching

v pres p

avalanched

v past

avalanched

v past p

WordReference Random House Learner's Dictionary of American English © 2025

av•a•lanche /ˈævəˌlæntʃ/   n. 

[countable]
1. Geology a large mass of snow, ice, etc., that comes loose from a mountain slope and slides or falls suddenly downward.
2. anything like an avalanche in suddenness and volume:
   received an avalanche of fan mail.

WordReference Random House Unabridged Dictionary of American English © 2025

av•a•lanche  (av′ə lanch′, -länch′), n., v., -lanched, -lanch•ing. 
n. 

1. a large mass of snow, ice, etc., detached from a mountain slope and sliding or falling suddenly downward.
2. anything like an avalanche in suddenness and overwhelming quantity:
   an avalanche of misfortunes; an avalanche of fan mail.
3. Physics Also called Townsend avalanche. a cumulative ionization process in which the ions and electrons of one generation undergo collisions that produce a greater number of ions and electrons in succeeding generations.

v.i. 

4. to come down in, or like, an avalanche.

v.t. 

5. to overwhelm with an extremely large amount of anything;
   swamp.

• pre-Latin (perh. Ligurian) *lavanca, or reshaping of Late Latin labīna landslide (derivative of Latin labī to slide) with a pre-Latin suffix -anca
• dialect, dialectal (Savoy) avalantse, alteration (by association with avaler to descend rapidly) of laventse
• French
• 1755–65

Collins Concise English Dictionary © HarperCollins Publishers::

avalanche / ˈævəˌlɑːntʃ/ noun

1. a fall of large masses of snow and ice down a mountain
2. a fall of rocks, sand, etc
3. a sudden or overwhelming appearance of a large quantity of things

verb

1. to come down overwhelmingly (upon)

Etymology: 18th Century: from French, by mistaken division from la valanche, from valanche, from (northwestern Alps) dialect lavantse; related to Old Provençal lavanca, of obscure origin