Words: cascade [AHED]

cas·cade
PRONUNCIATION: k-skAd
NOUN: 1. A waterfall or a series of small waterfalls over steep rocks. 2. Something, such as lace, thought to resemble a waterfall or series of small waterfalls, especially an arrangement or fall of material. 3. A succession of stages, processes, operations, or units. 4. Electronics A series of components or networks, the output of each of which serves as the input for the next. 5. A chemical or physiological process that occurs in successive stages, each of which is dependent on the preceding one, and often producing a cumulative effect: an enzymatic cascade.
INTRANSITIVE & TRANSITIVE VERB: Inflected forms: cas·cad·ed, cas·cad·ing, cas·cades
To fall or cause to fall in or as if in a cascade.
ETYMOLOGY: French, from Italian cascata, from cascare, to fall, from Vulgar Latin *casicare, from Latin cadere. See kad- in Appendix I.