cataract

English

WOTD – 22 March 2025

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈkætəɹækt/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈkætəˌɹæk(t)/
• Hyphenation: cat‧a‧ract

Etymology 1

PIE word
*ḱóm

The Devil’s Throat, the largest cataract (sense 1) of the Iguazu Falls at the border of Argentina and Brazil.

The noun is derived from cataracts (noun (plural only)), from Late Middle English cataract, cataracta, cateract, cateracte (“floodgate of heaven”), from Old French cataracte (modern French cataracte), and from its etymon Latin cataracta (“floodgate; waterfall”), from Ancient Greek καταρ(ρ)άκτης (katar(rh)áktēs, “(noun) waterfall; (adjective) rushing downwards”), from καταρ(ρ)ᾱ́σσω (katar(rh)ā́ssō, “to pour down; to rush downwards”) +‎ -της (-tēs, suffix forming nouns denoting a state of being). Καταρ(ρ)ᾱ́σσω (Katar(rh)ā́ssō) is derived either:

• from κᾰτᾰ- (kătă-, prefix meaning ‘downwards’) + ἀρᾰ́σσω (arắssō, “to dash to pieces; to strike”) (further etymology unknown, possibly onomatopoeic) or ῥᾱ́σσω (rhā́ssō, “to dash; to strike”) (possibly ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *wreh₂ǵʰ- (“to pound, strike”)); or
• from καταρρηγνύναι (katarrhēgnúnai, “to break down”).

The verb is derived from the noun.

Noun

cataract (plural cataracts)

2. A (large) waterfall, specifically one flowing over the edge of a cliff.

   The cataracts on the Nile helped to compartment Upper Egypt.

   • 1601, C[aius] Plinius Secundus [i.e., Pliny the Elder], “[Book V.] Of Asia.”, in Philemon Holland, transl., The Historie of the World. Commonly Called, The Naturall Historie of C. Plinius Secundus. […], 1st tome, London: […] Adam Islip, →OCLC, page 98:

     This Elephantis being an Iſland, is inhabited beneath the lovveſt cataract or fall of vvater three miles, and aboue Syene 16: […]

   • 1612, Michael Drayton, “The Sixt Song”, in [John Selden], editor, Poly-Olbion. Or A Chorographicall Description of Tracts, Riuers, Mountaines, Forests, and Other Parts of this Renowned Isle of Great Britaine, […], London: […] [Humphrey Lownes] for M[athew] Lownes; I[ohn] Browne; I[ohn] Helme; I[ohn] Busbie, →OCLC, page 88:

     [T]he Salmon ſeekes a freſher ſtreame to find / […] and ſtems the vvatry tract / VVhere Tivy falling dovvne, doth make a Cataract, / Forc't by the riſing Rocks that there her courſe oppoſe, […]

   • 1725, [Daniel Defoe], “Part II”, in A New Voyage Round the World, by a Course Never Sailed before. […], London: […] A[rthur] Bettesworth, […]; and W. Mears, […], →OCLC, page 190:

     [C]oming dovvn farther the ſame River, they heard a terrible Noiſe in the River, as of a mighty Cataract, or VVater-fall, vvhich increaſed as they came forvvard, till it grevv ſo loud, that they could not hear themſelves ſpeak, much leſs hear one another.

   • 1798 July 13 (date written), William Wordsworth, “Lines Composed a Few Miles above Tintern Abbey, […]”, in Poems […], volume II, London: […] Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown, […], published 1815, →OCLC, page 76:

     The sounding cataract / Haunted me like a passion: the tall rock, / The mountain, and the deep and gloomy wood, / Their colours and their forms, were then to me / An appetite: […]

3. (by extension) A flood of water; specifically, steep rapids in a river.
   • 1634, T[homas] H[erbert], “A Description of Larr”, in A Relation of Some Yeares Trauaile, Begunne Anno 1626. into Afrique and the Greater Asia, […], London: […] William Stansby, and Jacob Bloome, →OCLC, page 54:

     [S]uch a violent ſtorme of raine vnburthened it ſelfe neere this place, and cauſed ſuch a ſudden Deluge and Cattaract, that a Carrauan of tvvo thouſand Camels periſht, and vvere caſt avvay by it.

   • 1835, Alfred Tennyson, “Locksley Hall”, in Poems. […], volume II, London: Edward Moxon, […], published 1842, →OCLC, page 92:

     Locksley Hall, that in the distance overlooks the sandy tracts, / And the hollow ocean-ridges roaring into cataracts.

   • 1860, James Anthony Froude, “Queen Jane and Queen Mary”, in History of England from the Fall of Wolsey to the Death of Elizabeth, volume VI, London: John W[illiam] Parker, and Son, […], →OCLC, page 1:

     [T]here came a storm such as no living Englishman remembered. The summer evening grew black as night. Cataracts of water flooded the houses in the city and turned the streets into rivers; […]

4. (figurative) An overwhelming downpour or rush; a flood.

   His cataract of eloquence

   • 1785, William Cowper, “Book IV. The Winter Evening.”, in The Task, a Poem, […], London: […] J[oseph] Johnson;  […], →OCLC, page 141:

     Cataracts of declamation thunder here, / There foreſts of no-meaning ſpread the page / In vvhich all comprehenſion vvanders loſt; […]

   • 1842, Alfred Tennyson, “The Day-Dream. The Revival.”, in Poems. […], volume II, London: Edward Moxon, […], →OCLC, page 156:

     The palace bang'd, and buzz'd and clackt, / And all the long-pent stream of life / Dash'd downward in a cataract.

   • 1851 November 14, Herman Melville, “Loomings”, in Moby-Dick; or, The Whale, 1st American edition, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers; London: Richard Bentley, →OCLC, page 3:

     Water—there is not a drop of water there! Were Niagara but a cataract of sand, would you travel your thousand miles to see it?

   • 1858, Thomas Carlyle, “Of the Baireuth-Anspach Branch”, in History of Friedrich II. of Prussia, Called Frederick the Great, volume I, London: Chapman and Hall, […], →OCLC, book III, page 231:

     [T]he look of the man Casimir, between his cataract of black beard and this semi-nightcap, is carelessly truculent.

   • 1858, Thomas Carlyle, “Friedrich Takes the Field again, Intent on Having Neisse”, in History of Friedrich II. of Prussia, Called Frederick the Great, volume I, London: Chapman and Hall, […], →OCLC, book IV, page 459:

     Never came such a cataract of evil news on an Aulic Council before.

   • 2022 May 19, James Verini, “Surviving the Siege of Kharkiv”, in The New York Times Magazine‎^[1], New York, N.Y.: The New York Times Company, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2024-12-20, section:

     As if on cue came a cataract of explosions. She turned on her heel and scurried back to the courtyard and down into the school's basement. The dirt floor, low ceiling and unfinished stone walls were barely illuminated by candles and a dim string of green decorative lights.

5. (mechanics, chiefly historical) A type of governor used in single-acting steam engines, where a flow of water through an opening regulates the stroke.
6. (obsolete, also figurative) Synonym of waterspout (“a whirlwind that forms over water”)
   • 1555, Peter Martyr of Angleria [i.e., Peter Martyr d’Anghiera], “The Seconde Vyage to Guinea”, in Rycharde Eden [i.e., Richard Eden], transl., The Decades of the Newe Worlde or West India, […], London: […] [Rycharde Jug for] Guilhelmi Powell, →OCLC, decade, folio 357, verso:

     They ſay furthermore that in certeyne places of the ſea, they ſawe certeyne ſtremes of water which they caule ſpoutes faulynge owt of the ayer into the ſea: […] Sum phantaſie that theſe ſhulde bee the cataractes of heauen whiche were all opened at Noes fludde.

   • c. 1603–1606 (date written), [William Shakespeare], […] His True Chronicle Historie of the Life and Death of King Lear and His Three Daughters. […] (First Quarto), London: […] Nathaniel Butter, […], published 1608, →OCLC, [Act III, scene ii], signature [F4], recto:

     Blovv vvind & cracke your cheekes, rage, blovv / You caterickes, & Hircanios ſpout til you haue drencht, / The ſteeples drovvn'd the cockes, […]

     Blow, wind, and crack your cheeks, rage, blow, / You cataracts and hurricanes, spout till you have drenched / The steeples, drowned the cocks, […]

   • 1634, T[homas] H[erbert], “[The Hesperides]”, in A Relation of Some Yeares Trauaile, Begunne Anno 1626. into Afrique and the Greater Asia, […], London: […] William Stansby, and Jacob Bloome, →OCLC, page 7:

     [A] long ſpout of ſtinking raine Pyramide vviſe, diſſolued it ſelfe very neere vs. This hidious Cataract, as I conceiue is exhaled by the Suns povverfull Attract, and conuerted into an ill congeſted Cloud, vvanting height and heate, is forced into a violent eruption, vvhich diſſolued by the penetrating Sunne, eſſudes it ſelfe altogether (vvhence it had beginning) into the Ocean, […]

   • 1667, John Milton, “Book II”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […]; [a]nd by Robert Boulter […]; [a]nd Matthias Walker, […], →OCLC, signature [D4], verso, lines 174–176:

     [W]hat if all / Her ſtores vvere op'n'd, and this Firmament / Of Hell, ſhould ſpout her Cataracts of Fire, […]

Derived terms

• cataractal
• cataract bog
• cataracted
• cataractic

Descendants

• → Cebuano: katarak
• → Marshallese: kōtrāāk

Translations

(large) waterfall, specifically one flowing over the edge of a cliff (cognates) — see also waterfall

• Czech: katarakt m
• Dutch: cataract (nl) f
• French: cataracte (fr) f
• German: Katarakt (de) m
• Greek: καταρράκτης (el) m (katarráktis)

  Ancient: καταρράκτης m (katarrháktēs)

• Indonesian: katarak (id)
• Italian: cateratta (it)
• Latin: cataracta f
• Marshallese: kōtrāāk
• Middle Dutch: cataracte
• Portuguese: catarata (pt) f
• Romanian: cataractă (ro) f
• Spanish: catarata (es) f

flood of water — see also flood

• Bulgarian: потоп (bg) m (potop), проливен дъжд m (proliven dǎžd)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 洪流 (zh) (hóngliú)

• Dutch: stortvloed (nl)
• Finnish: kuohu (fi), ryöppy (fi), tulva (fi)
• Japanese: 激流 (ja) (げきりゅう, gekiryū)
• Macedonian: please add this translation if you can
• Russian: ли́вень (ru) m (lívenʹ), пото́п (ru) m (potóp) (flood), проливно́й дождь m (prolivnój doždʹ) (torrential rain)
• Ukrainian: please add this translation if you can

steep rapids in a river — see rapid

overwhelming downpour or rush — see flood

type of governor used in single-acting steam engines, where a flow of water through an opening regulates the stroke

• Finnish: nestejarru
• Macedonian: please add this translation if you can

Verb

cataract (third-person singular simple present cataracts, present participle cataracting, simple past and past participle cataracted)

1. (intransitive) Of a river, etc.: to fall in the form of a waterfall.
   • 1832 July, [John Wilson], “Christopher [North] at the Lakes. Flight Second.”, in Blackwood’s Edinburgh Magazine, volume XXXII, number CXCVI, Edinburgh: William Blackwood; London: T[homas] Cadell, […], →OCLC, page 125:

     [N]o river should cataract larger than the Clyde.

   • 1844, Eliot Warburton, “The Cataract and Philæ”, in The Crescent and the Cross; or, Romance and Realities of Eastern Travel. […], volume I, London: Henry Colburn, […], published 1845, →OCLC, page 285:

     After a short rest, we moved on over a quiet space of water to the third and greatest fall, where the whole body of the Nile precipitates itself from between two towering cliffs, foaming and plashing, and, in short, cataracting very respectably.

2. (transitive, figurative, rare) To cause (something) to pour or rush like a waterfall.
   • 1796 July 4 (date written), Samuel Taylor Coleridge, “Biographical Supplement to the Biographia Literaria. Chapter III. [1795 to 1796].”, in Biographia Literaria; or Biographical Sketches of My Literary Life and Opinions […], 2nd edition, volume II, part II, London: William Pickering, published 1847, →OCLC, page 370:

     My Poems have been reviewed. The Monthly has cataracted panegyric on me; the Critical cascaded it, and the Analytical dribbled it with civility.

     From a letter to Thomas Poole.

Translations

of a river, etc.: to fall in the form of a waterfall

• Finnish: pudota (fi), syöksyä (fi)
• Macedonian: please add this translation if you can

to cause (something) to pour or rush like a waterfall

• Finnish: syöstä (fi)
• Macedonian: please add this translation if you can

Etymology 2

A cataract (sense 2.1) in the eye of a common degu (Octodon degus), a species of small rodent.

From Late Middle English cataract, cataracta, cateract, cateracte (“(medicine) clouding of the lens in the eye”), from Old French cataracte (“clouding of the lens in the eye”), and then either:

• from its etymon Latin cataracta (“portcullis”) (in the sense of something blocking vision as a portcullis blocks a gateway), from Ancient Greek καταρ(ρ)άκτης (katar(rh)áktēs, “act of rushing down; portcullis”) (see further at etymology 1); or
• from clāthrāta (in fenestra clāthrāta (“window grating”)), an inflected form of clāthrātus (“grated, latticed, clathrate”), from clāthrī (“grate, lattic”) + -ātus (suffix denoting possession of something, forming adjectives from nouns). Clāthrī is derived from Doric Greek κλᾳ̃θρα (klãithra), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *(s)kleh₂w- (“crook, hook; peg; to close something”).

Noun

cataract (plural cataracts)

1. (obsolete, rare) Synonym of portcullis (“a gate in the form of a grating which is lowered into place at the gateway of a castle, a fort, etc.”); also, a window grating.
   • 1653, Francis Rabelais [i.e., François Rabelais], translated by [Thomas Urquhart, Peter Anthony Motteux], “The Author’s Prologue to the Third Book”, in The Works of Francis Rabelais, Doctor in Physick: Containing Five Books of the Lives, Heroick Deeds, and Sayings of Gargantua, and His Sonne Pantagruel. […], London: […] [Thomas Ratcliffe and Edward Mottershead] for Richard Baddeley, […], →OCLC; republished in volume I, London: […] Navarre Society […], [1948], →OCLC, 3rd book, page 315:

     Others did fortifie and rampire their Walls, […] assured the Port-culleys, fasten'd the Herses, Sarasinesks and Cataracks, placed their Centries, and doubled their Patrouilee.

2. (by extension)
   2. (ophthalmology, pathology) A clouding of the lens in the eye leading to a decrease in vision.
      • 1575, George Turberuile [i.e.. George Turberville], “Of the Cataract in the Eyes of a Hawke”, in The Booke of Faulconrie or Hauking, for the Onely Delight and Plerasure of All Noblemen and Gentlemen: […], London: […] [Henry Bynneman] for Christopher Barker, […], →OCLC, page 235:

        [T]her is a Caratact which doth light vpon the eyes of a Hawke, whome we may tearme a ſuffuſion, a miſchiefe not ſafely remoued, and diuers times impoſſible to be recured, as namely whẽ [when] it is growen too thicke, and ouerlong hath bin ſuffered in the eye, without ſeeking remedie for it: […]

      • 1999, Cynthia Mattox, Helen K. Wu, Joel S. Schuman, “Ocular Disorders of Aging”, in Joseph J. Gallo, Jan Busby-Whitehead, Peter V. Rabins, Rebecca A. Silliman, John B. Murphy, William Reichel, editors, Reichel’s Care of the Elderly: Clinical Aspects of Aging, 5th edition, Philadelphia, Pa.; Baltimore, Md.: Lippincott Williams & Wilkins, →ISBN, section I (Care of the Elderly Patient: Evaluation, Diagnosis, and Management), page 563, column 2:

        Rarely, a dense, swollen neglected cataract precipitates an angle-closure glaucoma.

      • 2022 June 22, “Rotoscope”, in Rotoscope (Rise 510-1), performed by Spiritbox, Beaverton, Or.: Rise Records:

        Shallow, this is what I created / Splayed out skeletons in the cracks in the pavement / And now, can you feel the injection back behind those cloudy eyes? / In-between every cataract, a projection of my life

      1. (figurative) Something which obscures.
         • 1631, Richard Brathwait, “Decency”, in The English Gentlewoman, Drawne out to the Full Body: […], London: […] B. Alsop and T. Fawcet, for Michaell Sparke, […], →OCLC, page 86:

           Thoſe filmes vvhich darkened the eye of the mindes, are remoued, thoſe thicke Cataracts of earthly vanities are diſperſed and diſpelled, and a nevv light into a nevv heart infuſed.

   3. (obsolete, textiles) A tool used for breaking flax; a brake.
      • 1653, Francis Rabelais [i.e., François Rabelais], translated by [Thomas Urquhart, Peter Anthony Motteux], “How the Famous Pantagruelion ought to be Prepared and Wrought”, in The Works of Francis Rabelais, Doctor in Physick: Containing Five Books of the Lives, Heroick Deeds, and Sayings of Gargantua, and His Sonne Pantagruel. […], London: […] [Thomas Ratcliffe and Edward Mottershead] for Richard Baddeley, […], →OCLC; republished in volume II, London: […] Navarre Society […], [1948], →OCLC, 3rd book, page 60:

        Some modern Pantagruelists, to shun and avoid that manual Labour, which such a separating and partitional Work would of necessity require, employ certain Catarratick Instruments, […] and athwart those Cataracts they break and bruise to very Trash the woody parcels [of the fictional herb “pantagruelion”], thereby to preserve the better the Fibres, which are the precious and excellent parts.

Derived terms

• aftercataract
• anticataract
• cataractal
• cataractogenesis
• cataractogenic
• cataractogenous
• cataractous
• nuclear cataract
• postcataract

Translations

clouding of the lens in the eye

• Bikol Central: katarata, muting
• Bulgarian: катарáкт m (katarákt), перде́ (bg) n (perdé)
• Catalan: cataracta f
• Cebuano: katarak, katarata
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 白內障 / 白内障 (zh) (báinèizhàng)

• Czech: katarakta f, šedý zákal (cs) m
• Dutch: cataract (nl) f, grijze staar ?
• Esperanto: katarakto
• Faroese: eygnastar n
• Finnish: kaihi (fi)
• French: cataracte (fr) f
• Galician: catarata (gl) f, belida (gl) f, pano (gl) m (of animals)
• German: Katarakt (de) m, grauer Star (de) m (informal)
• Greek: καταρράκτης (el) m (katarráktis)

  Ancient: γλαύκωμα n (glaúkōma)

• Hebrew: תְּבַלּוּל (he) m (tvalúl)
• Hungarian: katarakta (hu), hályog (hu), szürke hályog (hu)
• Icelandic: ský á auga n
• Ilocano: busa
• Indonesian: katarak (id)
• Irish: fionn m
• Italian: cataratta (it) f
• Ivatan: ruhaw
• Japanese: 白内障 (ja) (はくないしょう, hakunaishō)
• Khmer: ទឹកធ្លាក់ (tɨk thlĕək)
• Korean: 백내장(白內障) (ko) (baengnaejang)
• Macedonian: перде n (perde)
• Malay: katarak (ms)
• Malayalam: തിമിരം (ml) (timiraṁ)
• Middle English: cataract
• Navajo: anázhiin yiibaʼ
• Persian: آب‌مروارید (fa) (âb-morvârid)
• Polish: blachmal m (archaic), bielmo (pl) n
• Portuguese: catarata (pt) f
• Russian: катара́кта (ru) f (katarákta)
• Scottish Gaelic: neul-sùla m
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: мре̏на f

  Roman: mrȅna (sh) f

• Shan: တေႃႈ (shn) (tāu)
• Spanish: catarata (es) f
• Swahili: mtoto wa jicho
• Swedish: katarakt (sv), grå starr (sv)
• Tagalog: katarata
• Thai: ต้อกระจก (th)
• Tocharian B: surme
• Turkish: katarakt (tr), akbasma (tr), aksu (tr)
• Ukrainian: катара́кта f (katarákta)
• Vietnamese: cườm khô
• Welsh: niwlen f
• Zulu: umthuqu class 3/4

something which obscures

• Finnish: kaihi (fi)
• Macedonian: please add this translation if you can

Further reading

• cataract on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• list of waterfalls by type – cataract on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• Douglas Harper (2001–2025) “cataract”, in Online Etymology Dictionary.

Dutch

Alternative forms

• katarakt (superseded)

Etymology

From Middle Dutch cataracte, from Latin cataracta, from Ancient Greek καταρράκτης (katarrháktēs).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˌkaː.taːˈrɑkt/

• Audio:

  (file)

• Hyphenation: ca‧ta‧ract
• Rhymes: -ɑkt

Noun

cataract f (plural cataracten, diminutive cataractje n)

1. cataract, waterfall
2. (pathology) cataract

Synonyms

• (waterfall): waterval
• (cataract disease): grauwe staar

Descendants

• Afrikaans: katarak
• → Indonesian: katarak

Middle English

Alternative forms

• cateract, cataracta, cataracte, catheracte, catharacte, catharacta, catterak, catarac

Etymology

From Latin cataracta, from Ancient Greek καταρράκτης (katarrháktēs).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈkatərakt(ə)/, /ˈkatərak/, /ˈkatəraktaː/

Noun

cataract (plural cateractes)

1. (medicine) cataract
2. (Christianity) A gate guarding the entrance to Heaven.

Descendants

• English: cataract
  • → Cebuano: katarak
  • → Marshallese: kōtrāāk
• Scots: cataract (rare, obsolete)

References

• “cataracte, n.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007, retrieved 2018-04-20.