say it: ka-SKAYD
cascade is a noun and verb meaning "a small waterfall or series of small waterfalls". It carries 5 recorded senses.
a small waterfall or series of small waterfalls
a succession of stages or operations or processes or units
“progressing in severity as though a cascade of genetic damage was occurring”
“separation of isotopes by a cascade of processes”
a sudden downpour (as of tears or sparks etc) likened to a rain shower
“a little shower of rose petals”
“a sudden cascade of sparks”
rush down in big quantities, like a cascade
arrange (open windows) on a computer desktop so that they overlap each other, with the title bars visible
computer science
Forms marked · are formed by the regular rule rather than recorded in the source data. English keeps a few hundred irregulars and the rest follow the pattern, so the rule is right far more often than not — but it is a rule, and the mark says so.
Definitions, synonyms and semantic relations for cascade come from Princeton University’s WordNet. The pronunciation comes from the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary. Commonness is measured against a corpus of everyday English. Full sources and licences.