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• Crater
  Crater

  noun

  Joseph Force 1889–?, a judge of the New York State Supreme Court: his mysterious disappearance on August 6, 1930, has never been solved.

crater

¹ American  

[krey-ter] / ˈkreɪ tər /

noun

• craters,
  plural
• Crateris
  genitive

1. Geology, Astronomy.

   1. Also called impact crater;.  Also called meteorite crater.  a large bowl-shaped depression on the surface of the earth or other heavenly body, formed by the impact of a meteorite.

   2. a similar depression or cavity that forms the opening of a volcano or geyser. The volcanic activity that creates such craters occurs on the surface of the earth as well as a number of other heavenly bodies.

2. the hole or pit in the ground where a bomb, shell, or military mine has exploded.

3. Electricity. the cavity formed in a positive carbon electrode by an electric arc.

4. Greek and Roman Antiquity. krater.

5. Metalworking. a depression at the end of a bead produced by welding.

6. (initial capital letter) the Cup, a small southern constellation west of Corvus and north of Hydra.

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verb (used with object)

• craters,
  present (3rd person singular)
• cratered,
  past participle,  past
• cratering
  present participle

1. to make craters in.

   Bombs had cratered the landscape.

2. Slang.

   1. to cancel, abandon, or cast aside.

      to crater the new project.

   2. to destroy or ruin.

      One more disappointment won't crater me.

   3. to collapse, plunge, or fail suddenly; crash.

      The company’s stock has cratered 35% this year.

verb (used without object)

• craters,
  present (3rd person singular)
• cratered,
  past participle,  past
• cratering
  present participle

1. to form a crater or craters.

   The surface of the concrete cratered and cracked under the repeated impacts.

Crater ² American  

[krey-ter] / ˈkreɪ tər /

noun

1. Joseph Force 1889–?, a judge of the New York State Supreme Court: his mysterious disappearance on August 6, 1930, has never been solved.

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Crater ¹ British  

/ ˈkreɪtə /

noun

1. a small faint constellation in the S hemisphere lying between Virgo and Hydra

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crater ² British  

/ ˈkreɪtə /

noun

1. the bowl-shaped opening at the top or side of a volcano or top of a geyser through which lava and gases are emitted

2. a similarly shaped depression formed by the impact of a meteorite or exploding bomb

3. any of the circular or polygonal walled formations covering the surface of the moon and some other planets, formed probably either by volcanic action or by the impact of meteorites. They can have a diameter of up to 240 kilometres (150 miles) and a depth of 8900 metres (29 000 feet)

4. a pit in an otherwise smooth surface

5. a large open bowl with two handles, used for mixing wines, esp in ancient Greece

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verb

1. to make or form craters in (a surface, such as the ground)

2. slang to fail; collapse; crash

crater Scientific  

/ krā′tər /

1. A bowl-shaped depression at the top of a volcano or at the mouth of a geyser. Volcanic craters can form because of magma explosions in which a large amount of lava is thrown out from a volcano, leaving a hole, or because the roof of rock over an underground magma pool collapses after the magma has flowed away.

2. A shallow, bowl-shaped depression in a surface, formed by an explosion or by the impact of a body, such as a meteorite.

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Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• crater-like
  adjective
• crateral
  adjective
• cratered
  adjective
• craterless
  adjective
• craterlike
  adjective
• craterous
  adjective
• intercrater
  adjective

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• craters
  plural

Participles

• cratering
  present
• cratered
  past

Conjugated Forms

Present

• crater
  simple
• craters
  simple
• have cratered
  perfect
• has cratered
  perfect
• am cratering
  progressive
• are cratering
  progressive
• is cratering
  progressive
• have been cratering
  perfect progressive
• has been cratering
  perfect progressive

Past

• cratered
  simple
• had cratered
  perfect
• was cratering
  progressive
• were cratering
  progressive
• had been cratering
  perfect progressive

Future

• will crater
  simple
• will have cratered
  perfect
• will be cratering
  progressive
• will have been cratering
  perfect progressive

Etymology

Origin of crater

First recorded in 1605–15; from Latin crātēr, from Greek krātḗr “mixing bowl,” literally, “mixer”, equivalent to krā- (base of kerannýnai “to mix”) + -tēr agent suffix; cf. crasis

Explanation

A crater is a roundish dent left in the surface of something by the impact of something else. Look at the moon: it's covered in craters from thousands of impacts over millions of years. Once in a while, you might hear the word crater used as a verb, as in, "The movie cratered at the box office, earning way less than expected." But you'll usually hear crater used as a noun to refer to a bowl-shaped depression left behind by an explosion or impact. Outside Flagstaff, Arizona, you'll find Meteor Crater, one of the most well-defined impact craters on the surface of the earth. It's almost a mile across, even though the meteor that created it was less than 100 yards in diameter.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

crater Crater craters Crateris cratered cratering

The moon has a brand new crater as of Wednesday, thanks to a rogue SpaceX rocket that crashed into Earth’s nearest neighbor at 5,400 miles an hour.

From Salon ● Aug. 6, 2026

A stray SpaceX rocket has crashed into the Moon, forming a crater near a famous lunar landmark and giving scientists a unique research opportunity that could help future missions.

From BBC ● Aug. 5, 2026

A SpaceX rocket's upper stage is set to unintentionally crash into the Moon on Wednesday, a collision that poses no danger to Earth but will leave behind a lunar crater.

From Barron's ● Aug. 4, 2026

As Psyche moved closer, the cameras recorded detailed features on the surface, including wind-shaped craters, the south polar ice cap, and the large double-ringed Huygens crater.

From Science Daily ● Jul. 28, 2026

Jess’s was an innie, a little crater in her light brown skin.

From "The Honest Truth" by Dan Gemeinhart

Astrobotic's Griffin-1 lander is expected to land at Nobile Crater near the South Pole.

From BBC ● May 26, 2026

In a dried-up riverbed, there’s a rock with a freshly drilled hole in it—the handiwork of NASA’s Perseverance rover, which touched down in Jezero Crater in 2021.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 23, 2026

A long running scientific dispute about the origin of the Silverpit Crater beneath the southern North Sea has now been settled.

From Science Daily ● Mar. 11, 2026

Like the late Elvis, Crater was spotted here, there, and everywhere.

From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 21, 2026

Just before he was born, I was camping with Hugo in Ngorongoro Crater.

From "My Life with the Chimpanzees" by Jane Goodall

Asteroids and meteors have given the satellite its signature pockmarked surface and network of craters.

From BBC ● Aug. 4, 2026

As Psyche moved closer, the cameras recorded detailed features on the surface, including wind-shaped craters, the south polar ice cap, and the large double-ringed Huygens crater.

From Science Daily ● Jul. 28, 2026

The modeling shows that the Eulalia breakup could plausibly explain the increase in lunar craters dated to roughly 800 million years ago.

From Science Daily ● Jul. 18, 2026

The frozen water locked in permanently shadowed craters could one day be used for drinking water, oxygen and rocket fuel during future missions.

From BBC ● Jun. 9, 2026

The sights were familiar, the inventory was the same, but now there was more of everything; vehicles, bomb craters, detritus.

From "Atonement" by Ian McEwan

If now the telescope be directed to Alkes, there will be found, following him at a distance of 42·5 s, and about one minute southerly, a small red star, R. Crateris.

From Half-hours with the Telescope Being a Popular Guide to the Use of the Telescope as a Means of Amusement and Instruction. by Richard A. (Richard Anthony) Proctor

The star Alkes, or α Crateris, must first be found.

From Half-hours with the Telescope Being a Popular Guide to the Use of the Telescope as a Means of Amusement and Instruction. by Richard A. (Richard Anthony) Proctor

This is R Crateris, now known to be variable from above the 8th magnitude to below the 9th.

From Astronomical Curiosities Facts and Fallacies by J. Ellard Gore

The unincorporated area, carved out of the Florida wilderness in the 1950s, mushroomed beginning in the 1990s, cratered during the 2007-10 subprime-mortgage crisis and has been climbing its way back since.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 23, 2026

Fox also unloaded its regional cable sports networks — a savvy move before that business cratered.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 2, 2026

During the encounter, the spacecraft captured a series of images, including a striking view of the double-ring Huygens crater surrounded by the heavily cratered southern highlands of Mars.

From Science Daily ● May 23, 2026

Xanadu Quantum Technologies: Less than two months after its U.S. trading debut, Xanadu stock cratered when the company filed a prospectus allowing shareholders to register their stock for sale.

From Barron's ● May 15, 2026

If the Moon is so severely cratered by impacts, how has the Earth avoided them?

From "Cosmos" by Carl Sagan

The U.S. and Japan are seeking to contain tremors that could be triggered by a cratering Japanese currency.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 3, 2026

With a clearer picture of the future, it can invest more carefully in fabrication plants to satisfy overflowing demand without cratering prices down the line.

From Barron's ● Jun. 19, 2026

But the broader policy has remained in place and “the numbers are still cratering on them,” he said.

From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 25, 2026

Either way, his poll numbers have been cratering for the last two months.

From Salon ● Feb. 17, 2026

Thus, very roughly, craters on the Moon should be formed today at the rate of about 109 years/104 craters, = 105 years/crater, a hundred thousand years between cratering events.

From "Cosmos" by Carl Sagan

Related Words

• hole
• mouth
• pit