Meaning & use
volcano
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Meanings
nouncountablebiology
An opening in the earth's crust, often shaped like a mountain, from which hot melted rock, ash and gases escape.
Grammar: Countable: a volcano, many volcanoes; used with erupt.
Patterns
- a volcano erupts
- climb a volcano
The volcano erupted without much warning and covered the town in ash.
Hawaii has several active volcanoes.
We hiked to the rim of an extinct volcano.
nouncountablefigurative
A situation or feeling that is likely to burst out suddenly and violently.
Grammar: Used as a figurative image: the meeting was a volcano of anger.
Patterns
- a volcano of something
- sit on a volcano
Their long argument was a volcano waiting to erupt.
The country was a political volcano after years of unrest.
He felt like a volcano of anger inside.
Word forms
| plural | volcanoes |
|---|
Common combinations
- an active volcano
- Mount Etna is an active volcano in Italy.
- a dormant volcano
- The village sits beside a dormant volcano.
- an extinct volcano
- The hill is actually an extinct volcano.
- a volcano erupts
- When a volcano erupts, ash can reach the sky.
- volcano crater
- Tourists peered into the volcano crater.
Synonyms and how they differ
Word family
- volcanic adjective
- relating to or produced by volcanoes
- volcanology noun
- the scientific study of volcanoes
- volcanologist noun
- a scientist who studies volcanoes
- eruption noun
- the sudden release of material from a volcano
Commonly confused: volcano or geyser?
volcano vs geyser
A geyser shoots out hot water and steam, but a volcano releases melted rock and ash.
Practice
Which word best describes a volcano that has not erupted for a long time but could erupt again?
Choose one answer.
Dormant means sleeping, so it fits a volcano that may erupt again. Extinct means it will not, and active means it is erupting or erupts regularly.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “volcano”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.