crater

/ˈkɹeɪ.tə(ɹ)/US/ˈkɹeɪ.tɚ/

crater noun: a hemispherical pit created by the impact of a meteorite or other object. Also the alternative spelling of krater.

Image: NASA, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Noun (1)

crater (plural craters)

A hemispherical pit created by the impact of a meteorite or other object.

Synonyms:

astrobleme
The basin-like opening or mouth of a volcano, through which the chief eruption comes; similarly, the mouth of a geyser, about which a cone of silica is often built up.
The pit left by the explosion of a mine or bomb.
- But signalman Bridges was never to answer driver Gimbert's desperate question. A deafening, massive blast blew the wagon to shreds, the 44 high-explosive bombs exploding like simultaneous hits from the aircraft they should have been dropped from. The station was instantly reduced to bits of debris...2022 January 12, Benedict le Vay, “The heroes of Soham...”, in RAIL, number 948, page 43
(broadly, informal) Any large, roughly circular depression or hole.

Verb

crater (third-person singular simple present craters, present participle cratering, simple past and past participle cratered)

To form craters in a surface.
(figuratively) To collapse catastrophically; to become devastated or completely destroyed.
- Yup, John McCain said to me the economy “is about to crater.” You folks worried about the economy? Whoo! Not me.2008 November 25, David Letterman, quoting John McCain, “‘The Economy Is Exploding’”, in NYTimes blog
- Uber said on Thursday that its ride-hailing business had cratered in the second quarter as people traveled less in the pandemic.2020 August 6, Kate Conger, “Uber’s Revenue Craters, as Deliveries Surge in Pandemic”, in New York Times
Synonyms:

implode, hollow out, tank
To crash or fall.
- He cratered into that snow bank about five seconds after his first lesson.
To die from fall damage.

Noun (2)

crater (plural craters)

A worker who packs things in crates.
- He was hired in January 1987 as a crater and packer at the Renfrew plant and is still employed.1993, Decisions and Orders of the National Labor Relations Board (page 395)

Proper noun capitalized: Crater

Crater

A dim spring constellation of the northern sky, said to resemble a cup. It lies between the constellations Virgo and Hydra.

Also used as

crater is also the alternative spelling of krater.

crater is also the alternative form of creature.

crater meaning in Hindi, Urdu, Bengali and Telugu

crater in Hindi

astronomy: hemispherical pit: गर्त gart, दहाना dahānā
geology: opening of a volcano: गर्त gart
pit left by an explosion: गर्त gart

crater in Urdu

astronomy: hemispherical pit: دَہانَہ dahāna

crater in Bengali

astronomy: hemispherical pit: গর্ত gorto

crater in Telugu

క్రేటర్

More languagesFewer languages

crater in Malayalam: ഗർത്തം
crater in Nepali: क्रेटर
crater in Tagalog: lungaw, bunganga, bunganga ng bulkan, krater
crater in Arabic: فَوَّهَةُ الْبُرْكَان fawwahatu l-burkān, فَوَّهَة fawwaha
crater in Malay: kawah
crater in Indonesian: kawah
crater in Thai: แอ่ง ɛ̀ng, ปล่องภูเขาไฟ bplɔ̀ng-puu-kǎo-fai
crater in Vietnamese: hố va chạm, miệng núi lửa

Examples of crater in a sentence

The station was instantly reduced to bits of debris, and the line to a huge crater.2022 January 12, Benedict le Vay, “The heroes of Soham...”, in RAIL, number 948, page 43:
Trump’s support cratering over Venezuela anytime soon.2026 January 6, Linda Feldmann, Victoria Hoffmann, “Trump’s foray into Venezuela carries political risk at home”, in The Christian Science...

All 40 example sentences with crater

Synonyms of crater

Forms of crater

Noun
plural	craters
Verb
third-person singular present	craters
present participle	cratering
past participle	cratered
past	cratered

Plural of crater: craters

Origin of crater

First coined 1613, from Latin crātēr (“basin”), from Ancient Greek κρᾱτήρ (krātḗr, “mixing-bowl, wassail-bowl”).

crate + -er

From Latin crater (“basin; cup”), from Ancient Greek κρατήρ (kratḗr, “mixing bowl, wassail-bowl”), from κράμα (kráma, “mixture”), from κεράννυμι (keránnumi, “to mix, to mingle”).

Words formed from crater

Phrases with crater

Words that rhyme with crater

48 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about crater

What does crater mean?: Crater means a hemispherical pit created by the impact of a meteorite or other object.
What is crater in Hindi?: Crater in Hindi is गर्त (gart), दहाना (dahānā). See Crater meaning in Hindi.
How do you use crater in a sentence?: The station was instantly reduced to bits of debris, and the line to a huge crater.
What part of speech is crater?: Crater can be a noun, a verb or a proper noun.
How do you pronounce crater?: Crater is pronounced /ˈkɹeɪ.tə(ɹ)/ (UK).
What is the plural of crater?: The plural of crater is craters.

Words near crater in the dictionary

Adapted from Wiktionary: crater (page history and authors); Crater (page history and authors); crater (Telugu, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); crater (Malayalam, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); crater (Nepali, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated: 2026-09-02

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-crater.wav.

Cite this entry: “crater.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/crater. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.