Volcanic
adjectiveRelating to or produced by a volcano or volcanoes.
How to spell volcanic
8 letters · 3 syllables
How to pronounce volcanic
Say the part in capitals loudest.
What does volcanic mean?
- adjectiveRelating to or produced by a volcano or volcanoes.
Volcanic in a sentence
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The island was formed by volcanic activity over thousands of years.
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Rich volcanic soil makes the region ideal for growing coffee.
Where does volcanic come from?
Language of origin: Latin
The word comes from the name Vulcan, the Roman god of fire and metalworking, whose forge was imagined to lie beneath the earth. The Romans called the mountain Vulcano, one of the Aeolian Islands off Sicily, after this fiery deity, and the Italian word vulcano for a fire-spouting mountain grew from the same source. English borrowed the noun 'volcano' in the 1600s, and the adjective 'volcanic' followed in the 1700s, formed by adding the familiar Latin-derived suffix -ic meaning 'relating to'. The spelling keeps a single 'c' and ends in -anic, which is the part writers sometimes second-guess. It is a neat reminder that an everyday scientific word still carries the name of an ancient god of the underground fire.
How the word is built
- volcan- (from Vulcan, Roman god of fire)
- -ic (adjective suffix: relating to)
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