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Heap vs Avalanche - What's the difference?

heap | avalanche |

As nouns the difference between heap and avalanche

is that heap is heap while avalanche is a large mass or body of snow and ice sliding swiftly down a mountain side, or falling down a precipice.

As a verb avalanche is

to descend like an avalanche.

heap

English

(wikipedia heap)

Noun

(en noun)
  • A crowd; a throng; a multitude or great number of people.
  • * Francis Bacon
    • a heap of vassals and slaves
  • * W. Black
    • He had heaps of friends.
  • A pile or mass; a collection of things laid in a body, or thrown together so as to form an elevation.
    • a heap of earth or stones
  • * Dryden
    • Huge heaps of slain around the body rise.
  • A great number or large quantity of things.
  • * Bishop Burnet
    • a vast heap , both of places of scripture and quotations
  • * Robert Louis Stevenson
    • I have noticed a heap of things in my life.
  • (computing) A data structure consisting of trees in which each node is greater than all its children.
  • * {{quote-news
    • , year=2012 , date=May 9 , author=Jonathan Wilson , title=Europa League: Radamel Falcao's Atlético Madrid rout Athletic Bilbao , work=the Guardian citation , page= , passage=Every break seemed dangerous and Falcao clearly had the beating of Amorebieta. Others, being forced to stretch a foot behind them to control Arda Turan's 34th-minute cross, might simply have lashed a shot on the turn; Falcao, though, twisted back on to his left foot, leaving Amorebieta in a heap , and thumped in an inevitable finish – his 12th goal in 15 European matches this season.}}

    Synonyms

    * See also

    Verb

    (heap)
  • To pile in a heap.
    • He heaped the laundry upon the bed and began folding.
  • To form or round into a heap, as in measuring.
  • * 1819 , , Otho the Great , Act I, scene II, verses 40-42
    • Cry a reward, to him who shall first bring
    News of that vanished Arabian,
    A full-heap’d helmet of the purest gold.
  • To supply in great quantity.
    • They heaped praise upon their newest hero.

    Derived terms

    * heap up

    Anagrams

    * * * ----

    avalanche

    English

    (wikipedia avalanche) (Webster 1913)

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • A large mass or body of snow and ice sliding swiftly down a mountain side, or falling down a precipice.
  • A fall of earth, rocks, etc., similar to that of an avalanche of snow or ice.
  • A sudden, great, or irresistible descent or influx of anything.
  • Anything like an avalanche in suddenness and overwhelming quantity (like a barrage, blitz, etc).

    • Synonyms

    * snowslide, snowslip

    Verb

    (avalanch)
  • To descend like an avalanche.
  • To come down upon; to overwhelm.
    • The shelf broke and the boxes avalanched the workers.

    External links

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