torrent

English

Pronunciation

• (RP) IPA: /ˈtɒɹ.ən̩t/
• (US) IPA: /ˈtɔːɹ.ɪnt /, /ˈtɔːɹ.ənt/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

Etymology 1

[1601] From French torrent

Noun

torrent (plural torrents)

1. A large amount of something, especially water or rain; a heavy stream or flow.

   Rain fell on the hills in torrents.

   They endured a torrent of inquiries.

   A torrent of green and white water broke over the hull of the sail-boat.

   • 2011 December 21, Helen Pidd, “Europeans migrate south as continent drifts deeper into crisis”, the Guardian:

     A new stream of migrants is leaving the continent. It threatens to become a torrent if the debt crisis continues to worsen.

   • 1906, Alfred Noyes, The Highwayman:

     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 ...

Derived terms

• torrential
• torrentiality
• torrentially

Translations

Translations

• Aromanian: flumin (rup)
• Catalan: torrent (ca) m, riera (ca) f
• Esperanto: torento (eo)
• Finnish: hyöky (fi), vyöry (fi)
• French: torrent (fr) m
• German: Strom (de) m, Schwall (de) m, Sturzflut (de) f
• Maltese: wied (mt) m

• Persian: سیلاب (fa) (seylâb)
• Polish: potok (pl) m
• Portuguese: torrente (pt) m
• Romanian: torent (ro) n, puhoi (ro)
• Russian: поток (ru) (potók) m
• Spanish: torrente (es) m
• Swedish: skur (sv) c

See also

• barrage
• inundate
• deluge
• torrential

Adjective

torrent (comparative more torrent, superlative most torrent)

1. Rolling or rushing in a rapid stream.
   • Milton

     Waves of torrent fire.

Etymology 2

From BitTorrent and the file extension it uses for metadata (.torrent).

Noun

torrent (plural torrents)

1. (Internet, file sharing) A 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.

Translations

file transfers

• Esperanto: torento (eo)
• Marathi: टॉरेंट (mr) (ṭǒrenṭa) m

• Russian: торрент (ru) (tórrent) m

Verb

torrent (third-person singular simple present torrents, present participle torrenting, simple past and past participle torrented)

1. (Internet slang, transitive) To download in a torrent.

   The video rental place didn't have the film I was after, but I managed to torrent it.

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French

Etymology

From Latin torrens

Pronunciation

• audio

  (file)

• IPA: /tɔ.ʁɑ̃/, X-SAMPA: /tO.RA~/

Noun

torrent m (plural torrents)

1. A torrent

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Latin

Verb

torrent

1. third-person plural present active indicative of torreō