geyser
Americannoun
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geysers
plural
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a hot spring that intermittently sends up fountainlike jets of water and steam into the air.
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British Informal. a hot-water heater, as for a bath.
verb (used without object)
noun
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a spring that discharges steam and hot water
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a domestic gas water heater
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of geyser
1755–65; < Icelandic Geysir name of a hot spring in Iceland, literally, gusher, derivative of geysa to gush
Explanation
A geyser is a spring that dramatically spews hot water and steam — Old Faithful in Yellowstone National Park is one of the most famous. When a geyser explodes, hot water and steam shoot up out of the ground like some kind of crazy fountain. It's so amazing that people often use this word to describe things that remind them of geysers. If you suddenly make a lot of money, you hit a geyser. If someone is crying uncontrollably, that's a geyser of emotion. If you're writing quickly and well, it feels like a geyser of words. Anything powerfully flowing could be considered a geyser.
Vocabulary lists containing geyser
Physical Geography - Introductory
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English Words Derived from Old Norse
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Super Seismic: Words for Volcanoes and Earthquakes
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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.
See Examples For:
The geyser was capped about two weeks later.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Dec. 26, 2025
Another one gave way in rural Yancey County last week, sending a geyser dozens of feet into the air.
From Salon ● Nov. 25, 2024
After a few seconds I was hit full force by an 8-foot-tall geyser, and there wasn’t any lever on the pump that reduced the force.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 25, 2024
The service closed the area, a few miles from the Old Faithful geyser.
From BBC ● Jul. 24, 2024
Nico stumbled back as the arrow burst into a geyser of flame.
From "The House of Hades" by Rick Riordan
The resulting hydrothermal systems, comparable to the network of geysers around Yellowstone National Park, may have created favorable settings for the origin and early evolution of life.
From Science Daily ● Jul. 2, 2026
Those lucky few had the steaming geysers, multicolored hot springs and bubbling mudpots all to themselves.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jan. 23, 2026
A buildup in pressure across the region is propelling wastewater up ancient wellbores, birthing geysers that can cost millions of dollars to clean up.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Dec. 26, 2025
Among the most dramatic findings were the towering geysers on the icy moon Enceladus that hurled debris into space and produced a faint sub-ring around the planet.
From Science Daily ● Nov. 10, 2025
If I didn’t shut off the geysers soon, the salt water would run into the river and poison the fish and plants.
From "The Battle of the Labyrinth" by Rick Riordan
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.
