Surge

How to spell surge

5 letters · 1 syllable

How to pronounce surge

What does surge mean?

1. verbTo move suddenly and powerfully forward or upward, like a wave or a crowd.
2. nounA sudden strong increase or forward rush of something.

Surge in a sentence

• verb

  The crowd began to surge toward the stadium gates.

• noun

  The power surge damaged several appliances in the office.

• verb

  Floodwater can surge through the streets within minutes.

• noun

  Retailers reported a surge in online orders before the holiday.

Where does surge come from?

Language of origin: Latin

The word comes from the Latin verb surgere, meaning 'to rise' or 'to spring up', which was itself a contraction of an older form built from sub, here in the sense of 'up from below', and regere, 'to lead straight' or 'to direct'. The literal image is therefore of something being directed upward, rising into view. Latin surgere passed into the Romance languages and reached English through Middle French forms such as sourdre and surgir, which carried nautical senses of waves rising and swelling. English adopted it in the sixteenth century, first describing the heaving rise of the sea and then any sudden powerful swelling movement, whether of water, crowds, or electrical current. A useful spelling note: surge sounds exactly like serge, the twilled woollen cloth, so the trap is the vowel letter, with surge taking the 'u' that echoes its Latin ancestor surgere.

How the word is built

• surge (from Latin surgere: to rise), single root, no affixes