Torrent

How to spell torrent

7 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce torrent

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does torrent mean?

1. nounA strong, fast-moving stream of water or other liquid, or by extension an overwhelming rush of something.

Torrent in a sentence

• The storm turned the quiet creek into a raging torrent.

• A torrent of rainwater swept down the hillside and flooded the car park.

Where does torrent come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word traces back to the Latin verb torrere, which literally meant 'to burn, scorch, or parch'. Its present participle was torrens, torrentem, meaning 'burning' or 'boiling', and Romans applied it to a stream-bed that ran dry and cracked in summer heat but then 'boiled over' with a violent rush of water after rain. From the idea of a seething, boiling flow came the modern sense of a fast and forceful current. English borrowed it in the early 1600s by way of French torrent, which kept the Latin spelling almost intact. The same scorching root survives in the everyday words 'torrid' and even 'toast', a useful reminder that the unstressed second syllable is spelled -rent rather than the -ant you might expect.

How the word is built

• torr- (from Latin torrere: to burn, parch)
• -ent (present-participle suffix forming a noun)