temblor
Americannoun
plural
temblors,plural
tembloresnoun
Usage
What does temblor mean? Temblor is another word for an earthquake or a tremor. A temblor can also be called a trembler or a tremblor. These terms are all less commonly used than earthquake and tremor. The plural of temblor is temblors, but temblores is also sometimes used as a plural (due to the fact that temblor came from Spanish and this is how it is pluralized in Spanish). Example: The temblor that hit the area last month shook the whole city for more than a minute.
Etymology
Origin of temblor
An Americanism first recorded in 1895–1900; from Spanish: literally, “a quaking,” equivalent to tembl(ar) “to quake” (perhaps ultimately from Latin timēre “to fear” and Late Latin tremulāre “to quake”) + -or noun suffix; see tremble, -or 1
Compare meaning
How does temblor compare to similar and commonly confused words? Explore the most common comparisons:
Explanation
A temblor is another name for an earthquake. Feeling a temblor shake the ground under your feet can be terrifying, even when it's a fairly small one. The word temblor has been commonly used in American Spanish since the 19th century. It comes from a Spanish word meaning "a trembling." So if you ever have the experience of feeling the ground tremble beneath you or watching the dishes on your kitchen shelf trembling as your whole house shakes, you can describe it as an earthquake or a temblor.
Vocabulary lists containing temblor
This Week in Words: Current Events Vocabulary for February 25–March 3, 2023
Looking to grow your vocabulary? Check out this interactive, curated word list from our team of English language specialists at Vocabulary.com – one of over 17,000 lists we've built to help learners worldwide!
Winterhouse
Interested in learning more words like this one? Our team at Vocabulary.com has got you covered! You can review flashcards, quiz yourself, practice spelling, and more – and it's all completely free to use!
"Waking Up in a Nightmare" and "One Boy’s Experience"
Want to remember this word for good? Start your learning journey today with our library of interactive, themed word lists built by the experts at Vocabulary.com – we'll help you make the most of your study time!
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Wildflowers are continuing to bloom across the monument after early winter rains, with displays currently concentrated on the Temblor Range.
From Los Angeles Times • Mar. 10, 2026
To learn more about this notoriously seismically active region and why this earthquake was so damaging, Scientific American spoke with seismologist Ross Stein, CEO of the catastrophe modeling company Temblor.
From Scientific American • Feb. 6, 2023
So one of the things that we do, that Temblor does and a lot of scientists do, is try to calculate how one earthquake changes the conditions for failure around it.
From Scientific American • Feb. 6, 2023
Twenty years have I kept sheep between Red Butte and the Temblor Hills, and I say this.
From The Spinner's Book of Fiction by Various
He had come as far as the Rancho Temblor, Alvarado explained, and there, meeting some old friends, had decided to remain over night and accompany them the next day to the ceremony.
From The Doomswoman An Historical Romance of Old California by Atherton, Gertrude Franklin Horn
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
