🌧️ Rain or snow 🧪 Solid forms ⚡ Rashness 🤸 A fall

precipitation

8.1

A quick fall from a high place

noun
/prɪˌsɪpɪˈteɪʃən/

Literature

: caída

They described the sudden precipitation of debris during the landslide.

Examples

Wow! That was a lot of precipitation in one day!
Heavy precipitation caused flooding in the city.
His reckless leap amounted to a precipitation into the abyss.
The precipitation of the boulder from the cliff startled the hikers below.
The sudden precipitation from the cliffside shocked the hikers below as they barely had time to escape.
During the storm, the precipitation cascaded off the mountains, creating a breathtaking waterfall.
The magnificent precipitation from the overhead ledge startled everyone at the picnic below.

Compounds

heavy precipitation

1 3.2

A lot of rain or snow that falls in a short time

electrostatic precipitation

Specialized

7.2

A way to remove dust from gas by using an electric charge so particles stick to metal plates

acid precipitation

Specialized

5.3

Rain or snow that contains acid because of pollution from factories and cars

precipitation level

3.4

The amount of rain or snow that falls in a place during a period

Surface Forms

precipitation singular

precipitations plural

Morphology

precipitation = precipitate (semi-transparent) = precipitate + ation

This sense (falling headlong) is historically related to 'precipitate' but is an uncommon, more literal/archaic usage that learners may not readily infer.

Etymology

Precipitation comes from Latin praecipitare, built from prae- 'before' and caput 'head', so it literally had the sense of 'falling headfirst'. That is why the word can describe the act of falling down from a height.