Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English homepage

Date: 1700-1800
Language: French
Origin: French dialect lavantse, avalantse

avalanche

 noun
     
Related topics: Earth Sciences, Geography
av‧a‧lanche [countable]
1HE a large mass of snow, ice, and rocks that falls down the side of a mountain:
Two skiers were killed in the avalanche.
2

an avalanche of something

a very large number of things such as letters, messages etc that arrive suddenly at the same time:
The school received an avalanche of applications.
Definition from the Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
Advanced Learner's Dictionary.

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