skyrocket
Americannoun
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skyrockets
plural
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a rocket firework that ascends into the air and explodes at a height, usually in a brilliant array of sparks of one or more colors.
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Also called scarlet gilia. a plant, Ipomopsis aggregata, of the phlox family, native to western North America, having finely divided leaves and clusters of red, trumpet-shaped flowers.
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an organized group cheer, usually led by a cheerleader, as at a football or basketball game, which begins with a hissing or whistling and ends with a shout.
verb (used without object)
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skyrockets,
present (3rd person singular)
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skyrocketed,
past participle, past
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skyrocketing
present participle
verb (used with object)
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skyrockets,
present (3rd person singular)
-
skyrocketed,
past participle, past
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skyrocketing
present participle
-
to cause to rise or increase rapidly and usually suddenly.
Economic changes have skyrocketed prices.
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to thrust with sudden dramatic advancement; catapult.
Talent has skyrocketed him to fame.
noun
verb
Other Word Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
skyrocketsimple
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skyrocketssimple
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have skyrocketedperfect
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has skyrocketedperfect
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am skyrocketingprogressive
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are skyrocketingprogressive
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is skyrocketingprogressive
-
have been skyrocketingperfect progressive
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has been skyrocketingperfect progressive
Past
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skyrocketedsimple
-
had skyrocketedperfect
-
was skyrocketingprogressive
-
were skyrocketingprogressive
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had been skyrocketingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of skyrocket
Explanation
When something skyrockets, it shoots up. Immediately after the Winter Olympics, interest in ice skating, bobsledding, and curling tends to skyrocket, or increase suddenly and dramatically. The verb skyrocket is good to use when something grows or shoots up as abruptly as a firework. Gas prices, food prices, debt, and winter cases of the flu are all said, from time to time, to skyrocket. A more literal meaning of skyrocket is the actual rocket that's designed to send a flare or firework high into the sky. A bottle rocket — a firework that is placed in an empty bottle before being lit and shooting into the air — is one example of a small skyrocket.
Vocabulary lists containing skyrocket
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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:
It started on a platform called Popshoplive to sell Hello Kitty and other items, but sales didn’t skyrocket until it switched to TikTok Shop in 2023.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 4, 2026
Wall Street expectations for an interest-rate hike at the Fed’s next big meeting in mid-September would skyrocket.
From MarketWatch ● Aug. 11, 2026
"We probably need a lot more data on the reliability, we need a lot more research… otherwise what happens is your levels of anxiety will just skyrocket," he said.
From BBC ● Jul. 19, 2026
Taxpayers will get socked with the bill later, and the cost will skyrocket if there’s a stock-market downturn, as sooner or later there will be.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 16, 2026
On the top step he let out a shriek that one witness likened to the scream of a skyrocket.
From "The Devil in the White City" by Erik Larson
They tend to operate during the coldest or hottest hours, when demand for electricity skyrockets and the power grid is stressed, said Form’s chief executive and co-founder, Mateo Jaramillo.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 12, 2026
Singapore's economy grew six percent year-on-year in the first quarter as demand skyrockets for artificial intelligence chips, balancing the fallout from the Middle East war, the government said Monday.
From Barron's ● May 25, 2026
Swinney accused UK ministers of "twiddling their thumbs" while the cost of living for rural households skyrockets.
From BBC ● Mar. 15, 2026
In other words, homeowners are incentivized to not sell their home and give up their tax rate, which remains low even as their home value skyrockets.
From MarketWatch ● Jan. 7, 2026
The same is true of Fourth of July equipment, flags and bunting and skyrockets.
From "Cannery Row" by John Steinbeck
But in the 15 years since, the price of one Bitcoin had skyrocketed as high as $126,000, in 2025, only to fall back down to about $76,000 at the time of the conference.
From Slate ● Sep. 20, 2026
Founded in Massachusetts in the early 1900s, the popularity of Converse has skyrocketed since its Chuck Taylor sneaker was first introduced to US basketball courts in 1917.
From BBC ● Sep. 19, 2026
A decade later, during the pandemic, home prices skyrocketed, and in the years since, interest rates have risen as well.
From MarketWatch ● Sep. 16, 2026
From the time Jobs launched it in 2007 to Cook’s first year at the helm, Apple’s revenue skyrocketed from $24 billion to $157 billion.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 1, 2026
As described in chapter 1, during the late 1970s, jobs had suddenly disappeared from urban areas across America, and unemployment rates had skyrocketed.
From "The New Jim Crow" by Michelle Alexander
For Mancuso, her already-high anxiety about her son's well-being is skyrocketing.
From BBC ● Sep. 6, 2026
But the unyielding free market advocate likely became just as well known for his opposition to Proposition 103, the landmark 1988 insurance initiative that regulated the industry following a period of skyrocketing auto premiums.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 4, 2026
This book is widely credited with the skyrocketing sales of vitamin C at the time, a trend that continues today.
From Science Daily ● Aug. 27, 2026
“And both closed models and open models are skyrocketing in use.”
From MarketWatch ● Aug. 27, 2026
With the price of oil skyrocketing, Giebel found himself worth $100 million.
From "Friday Night Lights: A Town, A Team, And A Dream" by H.G. Bissinger
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.
