Meanings
torrent1
plural torrents
- A violent flow, as of water, lava, etc.; a stream suddenly raised and running rapidly, as down a precipice.
Rain fell on the hills in torrents.
3 more examples
A torrent of green and white water broke over the hull of the sail-boat.
"Try not the Pass!" the old man said; / "Dark lowers the tempest overhead, / The roaring torrent is deep and wide!" / And loud that clarion voice replied / Excelsior!
1841 September 28 (date written), Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, “[Miscellaneous.] Excelsior.”, in Ballads and Other Poems, 2nd edition, Cambridge, Mass.: […] John Owen, published 1842, →OCLC, stanza 4, page 130Floods in northern India, mostly in the small state of Uttarakhand, have wrought disaster on an enormous scale.[…]Rock-filled torrents smashed vehicles and homes, burying victims under rubble and sludge.
2013 June 29, “High and wet”, in The Economist, volume 407, number 8842, page 28 - figurativelyA large amount or stream of something.
They endured a torrent of inquiries.
4 more examples
The wind was a torrent of darkness among the gusty trees, / The moon was a ghostly galleon tossed upon cloudy seas, / The road was a ribbon of moonlight over the purple moor, / And the highwayman came riding— / Riding—riding— / The highwayman came riding, up to the old inn-door.
1906 August, Alfred Noyes, “The Highwayman”, in Poems, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company; London: Macmillan & Co., published October 1906, →OCLC, part 1, stanza I, page 45On the banks of the grey torrent of life, love is the only flower.
1907, E.M. Forster, The Longest Journey, Part III, XXXI [Uniform ed., p. 278]Western civilization has always taught the repression of emotion […] The emotional torrents of opera rebel against this.
1981 December 5, Michael Bronski, “Coming (Out) to Opera”, in Gay Community News, volume 9, number 20, page 6A new stream of migrants is leaving the continent. It threatens to become a torrent if the debt crisis continues to worsen.
2011 December 21, Helen Pidd, “Europeans migrate south as continent drifts deeper into crisis”, in the Guardian
comparative more torrent · superlative most torrent
- Rolling or rushing in a rapid stream.
Waves of torrent fire.
1667, John Milton, “Book II”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […]; [a]nd by Robert Boulter […]; [a]nd Matthias Walker, […], →OCLC; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, →OCLC
present singular third person torrents · participle present torrenting · participle past torrented · past torrented
- intransitiveTo fall or flow in a torrent; to pour.
Outside[,] rain was torrenting down, lightning and thunder heralded the arrival of a summer storm.
2024 November 11, Peter D. Thompson, The Connection, Xlibris Corporation, →ISBN1 more example
... through the inflexible rain, each turn in the track revealed a new cascade, torrenting down the steep cliff of the hill. The weather was too wild for me to get to them. In good weather, they wouldn't exist.
2016 January 28, Anna Pavord, Landskipping: Painters, Ploughmen and Places, Bloomsbury Publishing, →ISBN, page 63
torrent2
plural torrents
- Internetfile sharingA set of files obtainable through a peer-to-peer network, especially BitTorrent.
I got a torrent of the complete works of Shakespeare the other day; I'm not sure why.
present singular third person torrents · participle present torrenting · participle past torrented · past torrented
- InternettransitiveTo download in a torrent.
The video rental place didn't have the film I was after, but I managed to torrent it.
1 more example
They had two thousand CDs burned with Listnin loaded on them, including versions for every major phone OS, and they'd set up a dozen servers in seven different countries for people to torrent the file from.
2009, Rick Dakan, Geek Mafia: Black Hat Blues, page 38
Synonyms & antonyms
Synonym sets from Open English WordNet, CC BY 4.0.
Origin
torrent · noun, adjective, verb
- Latintorrēre“to parch, scorch”
- Latintorrentem
- Italiantorrente
- Frenchtorrent
- Englishtorrent
Borrowed from French torrent, from Italian torrente, from Latin torrentem, accusative of torrēns (“burning, seething, roaring”), from Latin torrēre (“to parch, scorch”).
More words from French, Italian, Latin
Full word history & related roots →torrent · noun, verb
From BitTorrent and the file extension it uses for metadata (.torrent); ultimately from etymology 1, carrying the notion of the flow of information.
Full word history & related roots →Translations
Ancient Greek χειμάρρους
- χειμάρρους (kheimárrhous)violent flow, as of water etc.
Bengali সয়লাব
- সয়লাব (śôẏlab)violent flow, as of water etc.
Bulgarian порой, торент
- порой (poroj)violent flow, as of water etc.
- торент (torent)file transfers
Catalan torrent, riera
- torrentviolent flow, as of water etc.
- rieraviolent flow, as of water etc.
Chinese Mandarin 奔流, 急流
- 奔流 (bēnliú)violent flow, as of water etc.
- 急流 (jíliú)violent flow, as of water etc.
- 洪流 (hóngliú)violent flow, as of water etc.
- 種子 /种子file transfers
Czech torent
- torentfile transfers
Dutch stortvloed, stroom
- stortvloedviolent flow, as of water etc.
- stroomviolent flow, as of water etc.
Esperanto torento, torento
- torentoviolent flow, as of water etc.
- torentofile transfers
Finnish hyöky, vyöry
- hyökyviolent flow, as of water etc.
- vyöryviolent flow, as of water etc.
French torrent
- torrentviolent flow, as of water etc.
German Strom, Schwall
- Stromviolent flow, as of water etc.
- Schwallviolent flow, as of water etc.
- Sturzflutviolent flow, as of water etc.
Greek χείμαρρος
- χείμαρρος (cheímarros)violent flow, as of water etc.
Hungarian özön
- özönviolent flow, as of water etc.
Japanese トレント
- トレント (torento)file transfers
Malay cegar
- cegarviolent flow, as of water etc.
Māori ia, hīrere
- iaviolent flow, as of water etc.
- hīrereviolent flow, as of water etc.
Persian سیلاب
- سیلاب (seylâb)violent flow, as of water etc.
Polish potok, torrent
- potokviolent flow, as of water etc.
- torrentfile transfers
Portuguese torrente, torrente
- torrenteviolent flow, as of water etc.
- torrentefile transfers
Romanian torent, puhoi
- torentviolent flow, as of water etc.
- puhoiviolent flow, as of water etc.
Russian пото́к, то́ррент
- пото́к (potók)violent flow, as of water etc.
- то́ррент (tórrent)file transfers
Scottish Gaelic tuil, taom
- tuilviolent flow, as of water etc.
- taomviolent flow, as of water etc.
- gàthviolent flow, as of water etc.
Spanish torrente
- torrenteviolent flow, as of water etc.
Swedish skur, ström
- skurviolent flow, as of water etc.
- strömviolent flow, as of water etc.
- forsviolent flow, as of water etc.
Rhymes & wordplay
Rhymes with torrent
All rhymes →Cite this entry
torrent. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/torrent
“torrent.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/torrent. Accessed November 3, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “torrent,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/torrent.
Source: torrent on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.