ricochet
Americannoun
verb (used without object)
verb
noun
-
the motion or sound of a rebounding object, esp a bullet
-
an object, esp a bullet, that ricochets
Other Word Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
ricochetsimple
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ricochetssimple
-
have ricochetedperfect
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have ricochettedperfect
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has ricochetedperfect
-
has ricochettedperfect
-
am ricochetingprogressive
-
am ricochettingprogressive
-
are ricochetingprogressive
-
are ricochettingprogressive
-
is ricochetingprogressive
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is ricochettingprogressive
-
have been ricochetingperfect progressive
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have been ricochettingperfect progressive
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has been ricochetingperfect progressive
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has been ricochettingperfect progressive
Past
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ricochetedsimple
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ricochettedsimple
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had ricochetedperfect
-
had ricochettedperfect
-
was ricochetingprogressive
-
was ricochettingprogressive
-
were ricochetingprogressive
-
were ricochettingprogressive
-
had been ricochetingperfect progressive
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had been ricochettingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of ricochet
First recorded in 1760–70; from French; further origin uncertain
Explanation
A projectile that bounces off another surface is said to ricochet. You missed when you threw your crumpled paper at the wastepaper basket. Instead, the paper ricocheted off the wall and hit your brother on the head. The battle was on! As a noun, ricochet refers to the rebound or to the object that ricochets. If someone shoots a bullet and it ricochets off a tree, you can survive the initial gunfire only to be caught by the ricochet. The word ricochet is from the French word of the same spelling. Because of its French origin, the word is still pronounced with the soft French "shay" sound at the end — not a hard "T."
Vocabulary lists containing ricochet
Touching Spirit Bear
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The Skin I'm In
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Code Talker
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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.
The unpleasant market metaphor refers to the idea that even a lifeless feline when dropped from a height may initially ricochet off the ground.
From MarketWatch • Jun. 9, 2026
Ms. Frank’s unconventional, imaginatively orchestrated score maps their dreamlike journey as they ricochet through different planes of existence, and find resolution together in their love and their art.
From The Wall Street Journal • May 18, 2026
The court ruling was the latest legal move to ricochet through the interoceanic waterway, which handles about 40 percent of US container traffic and five percent of world trade.
From Barron's • Feb. 23, 2026
The messages ricochet across an Iowa grocery store, a kind of ambient chorus while, at one of the few remaining manned checkout lines, a cashier squints at his screen.
From Salon • Jan. 3, 2026
Three profoundly destabilizing scientific ideas ricochet through the twentieth century, trisecting it into three unequal parts: the atom, the byte, the gene.
From "The Gene" by Siddhartha Mukherjee
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.
