skyrocket

C2+ Topic:Actions & Processes

Also spelled sky-rocket

US /ˈskaɪrɑkɪt/ UK /ˈskaɪrɒkɪt/ See IPA manual

Meanings

1

verb
to rise rapidly and steeply

Housing prices skyrocketed after the new factory opened.

Verb forms

Verb forms are not available for this word yet.

Thesaurus

Synonyms

1 verb · to rise rapidly and steeply soar rocket surge escalate spikeshoot up

Opposites

plummet plunge drop crash

Word family

Related forms sky rocket

Etymology

A compound of sky (from Old Norse sky 'cloud') and rocket (from Italian rocchetto 'bobbin', via French roquette), originally naming a firework that shoots upward.

sky Middle English rocchetto Italian

View etymology graph ->

Topics

Actions & Processes

External links

# skyrocket

**Type:** Word
**Level:** C2+
**Part of speech:** verb
**IPA (US):** /ˈskaɪrɑkɪt/
**IPA (UK):** /ˈskaɪrɒkɪt/

## Meanings
1. to rise rapidly and steeply

## Examples
- Housing prices skyrocketed after the new factory opened.

## Synonyms
- soar
- rocket
- surge
- escalate
- spike
- shoot up

## Antonyms
- plummet
- plunge
- drop
- crash

## Related Forms
- sky
- rocket

## Roots and Affixes
- Root: sky
- Root: rocchetto

## Etymology
A compound of sky (from Old Norse sky 'cloud') and rocket (from Italian rocchetto 'bobbin', via French roquette), originally naming a firework that shoots upward.

## AI Etymology
Skyrocket is a compound of sky (from Old Norse sky 'cloud') and rocket (from Italian rocchetto 'bobbin', via French roquette), originally naming a firework that shoots upward. The historical chain includes Old Norse sky and Italian rocchetto. Older glosses in the chain include "cloud" and "bobbin", which help explain the semantic range of the modern word. Morphologically, skyrocket is best read as compound and borrowing, yielding an English verb and noun shaped by both form history and later usage. In current English it functions as a verb and noun, with the sense "to rise rapidly and steeply". related forms include sky and rocket. The result is an English verb and noun whose etymology preserves the older forms while supporting the word's specialized modern meaning.

## Topics
- Actions & Processes

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