geyser
Americannoun
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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:
That pipe was 90, and it died spectacularly, sending up a 30-foot geyser and causing damage in the millions.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 25, 2026
“Washington, D.C., has an unstoppable geyser of poop. And now, there’s one in the Potomac, too,” Stephen Colbert said last month.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Feb. 19, 2026
Maybe this explains the creator’s choice to make the towering media malpractice that cemented Knox’s infamy a minor character as opposed to the acid geyser etching her supposed malice into our collective memory.
From Salon ● Aug. 20, 2025
The service closed the area, a few miles from the Old Faithful geyser.
From BBC ● Jul. 24, 2024
At the other end of the Acropolis, a hundred yards away, a geyser of water shot into the sky.
From "Blood of Olympus" 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
This summer, however, Universal Studios has made the ride even wetter, thanks to additional dinosaurs and new geysers.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 17, 2025
This time, fireworks shot off in front of the glass right on cue, sending up geysers of golden sparkles.
From "The Mark of Athena" 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.
