torrential
Americanadjective
-
of or relating to a torrent
-
pouring or flowing fast, violently, or heavily
torrential rain
-
abundant, overwhelming, or irrepressible
torrential abuse
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of torrential
Explanation
If it's raining extremely hard, then the rain is torrential — it's absolutely pouring. Use torrential to describe something that's happening in torrents, or turbulent flowing streams. When there's a torrential storm, there's so much rain falling so fast that you'll be soaked in about three seconds. If a basketball team's offense just keeps coming and won't stop, you could call it a torrential attack. And if you take your sister's shoes without asking, she might shower you with a torrential tongue-lashing.
Vocabulary lists containing torrential
I Am Malala
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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.
After firefighters extinguished the Jan. 1 blaze, torrential winds reignited the embers a week later.
From The Wall Street Journal • May 24, 2026
Last year, 80 percent of Bogus Basin’s pile survived torrential rainstorms and stretches of record summer heat.
From Slate • Apr. 11, 2026
The term refers to warmer-than-average waters along the equatorial Pacific that can influence weather across the globe, raising the odds of searing drought in some regions and torrential rain in others.
From Los Angeles Times • Apr. 9, 2026
Police say that search and rescue operations are continuing following the "torrential rain and subsequent devastating flooding affecting various parts of the country".
From BBC • Mar. 15, 2026
It had been a few weeks since the last torrential storm, and anything that had regrown since the flares was parched.
From "The Kill Order (Maze Runner, Book Four; Origin)" by James Dashner
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.
