lava lamp

American  

[lah-vuh lamp] / ˈlɑ və ˌlæmp /

noun

lava lamps plural

1. an electric lamp made of a transparent, tapered cylinder containing a liquid in which a colored wax-based or waxlike substance is stimulated by the heat of the light bulb to change into randomly separating shapes that constantly rise and fall.

   Call me an old hippie, but lava lamps belong in rooms with Woodstock posters and beaded curtains, not among the pristine décor of gabled verandas.

---

lava lamp British  

noun

1. a decorative type of lamp in which a luminous viscous material moves in constantly changing shapes

---

Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• lava lamps
  plural

Etymology

Origin of lava lamp

First recorded in 1965–70

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

lava lamp

It’s got a purple corded phone, a lava lamp, a beanbag chair … and it happens to be a habitat at a zoo on a planet of bug people.

From Los Angeles Times ● May 3, 2026

This idea describes how hot, dense rock gradually detaches from the base of tectonic plates after continents split, behaving somewhat like blobs rising and falling in a lava lamp.

From Science Daily ● Nov. 25, 2025

Surely I was in for many nights of taking in the wonder of a rapidly shimmering ectoplasm-green alien lava lamp.

From Slate ● Oct. 16, 2024

Ms. Beatts said she was hesitant to take the job, believing that television was “just a lava lamp with sound.”

From Washington Post ● Apr. 9, 2021

Soon, the center of the club looked like some otherworldly lava lamp.

From "Ready Player One: A Novel" by Ernest Cline