volcano

A vent or fissure on the surface of a planet (usually in a mountainous form) with a magma chamber attached to the mantle of a planet or moon, periodically erupting forth lava and volcanic gases onto the surface.

Noun

  1. A vent or fissure on the surface of a planet (usually in a mountainous form) with a magma chamber attached to the mantle of a planet or moon, periodically erupting forth lava and volcanic gases onto the surface.
    • Iceland's volcanoes are among the most active on Earth.
  2. A kind of firework producing an upward plume of sparks.

Origin

From Italian vulcano, from Vulcano (“a small volcanic island in the Tyrrhenian Sea”), from Latin Vulcānus (“Vulcan, the Roman god of fire and metalworking”). Doublet of bolcane and Vulcan.

Forms

volcanoes volcanos vulcano

Hypernyms

mountain

Hyponyms

active volcano complex volcano cryovolcano dormant volcano flaming volcano ice volcano mud volcano onion volcano shield volcano stratovolcano subglacial volcano supervolcano table volcano

Related

crater lava lava flow magma vent

Derived

volcanello volcanic volcanism volcano boarding volcano bowl volcano cake Volcano Islands volcanology volcano plot volcano potato volcano rabbit volcano surfing

Verb

  1. to erupt; to burst forth
    • She shrank back, the words volcanoed, words that stabbed again, and yet again - 1951, Phyllis Hambledon, Nobody's Child:
    • Startled, you look up at the horizon just in time to see a gigantic plume of ash and dust volcanoing up into the sky and spreading out to form a gigantic cloud that will persist for days, weeks, perhaps years. - 2012,...

Forms

volcanos volcanoes volcanoing volcanoed vulcano