avalanche
AV-uh-lanch
A mass of snow, ice, and debris sliding rapidly down a mountainside. The word is clinical but the thing itself is not — an avalanche can move at 200 miles per hour and bury everything in its path in minutes.
Etymology
French, from the Alpine dialect avalanche, alteration of lavanche, possibly from Latin labina (a sliding, a landslide), from labi, to slip.
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