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
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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:
As avian flu spread like wildfire through the industry, poultry farmers were forced to cull 26 million birds, leading prices to skyrocket.
From Barron's ● Aug. 5, 2026
Premiums skyrocket when enrollment is delayed until later years, because insurers must account for the higher probability of the insured person making immediate claims, giving less time for the insurer to collect and invest premiums.
From MarketWatch ● Jul. 29, 2026
Rules have been changed in baseball, basketball, American football and ice hockey to allow for more minority investments in the past decade, causing team values to skyrocket.
From BBC ● Jul. 29, 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
“I didn’t expect fundamental deterioration in the underlying mortgage pools to hit critical levels for a couple years,” he said—when the teaser rates would vanish and monthly payments would skyrocket.
From "The Big Short" by Michael Lewis
Investors have also been debating whether memory-chip makers can escape their historic boom-bust cycles as AI demand skyrockets.
From MarketWatch ● Jul. 9, 2026
Samsung, which makes memory chips essential for AI data centres, has also seen its value and profits soar as global demand skyrockets.
From Barron's ● Jun. 2, 2026
Podcast ads may be better heard than seen, a new study suggests, even as the popularity of video podcasting skyrockets.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Dec. 17, 2025
Directed by Jay Roach and written by Tony McNamara, Theo is an architect whose career collapses at the same time as his wife's career as an up-and-coming chef skyrockets.
From BBC ● Aug. 29, 2025
The same is true of Fourth of July equipment, flags and bunting and skyrockets.
From "Cannery Row" by John Steinbeck
Its shares skyrocketed initially before coming back down to earth, and now sit at about their $135 offering price.
From Barron's ● Aug. 26, 2026
In Horry County, of which Myrtle Beach is the largest city, the population has skyrocketed in recent decades.
From Slate ● Aug. 25, 2026
By the end of last year, EsDeeKid's monthly listens on Spotify had "skyrocketed", external, which Dazed said had "half of Europe rapping in his distinctive scouse accent".
From BBC ● Aug. 24, 2026
In early interviews discussing the film, Nolan referenced Wilson’s translation, which subsequently skyrocketed in sales.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 31, 2026
Unless more Langley women volunteered to make the move, the members of the branch worried that their new office “was going to be badly understaffed” just as the workload skyrocketed.
From "Hidden Figures" by Margot Lee Shetterly
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
This is partly due to component costs such as Ram skyrocketing in price as AI companies buy up all the parts for their data centres.
From BBC ● Aug. 26, 2026
Now, the shipping industry is navigating skyrocketing rates and scarce capacity.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 14, 2026
My stomach a hard ball, my pulse skyrocketing again, I left his office without shaking his outstretched hand.
From "The Girl on the Train" by Paula Hawkins
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.
