Bonanza
name, noun ·Moderate ·College level
Definitions
- 1 A rich mine or vein of silver or gold.
- 2 a sudden happening that brings good fortune (as a sudden opportunity to make money) wordnet
- 3 The point at which two mother lodes intersect.
- 4 an especially rich vein of precious ore wordnet
- 5 Anything which is a great source of wealth or yields a large income or return. broadly, figuratively
"The popular show quickly became a ratings bonanza for the network."
- 1 A city in Klamath County, Oregon, United States.
Antonyms
All antonymsExample
More examples""Bonanza" is not about bananas. Or maybe it is. It's a famous western series."
Etymology
Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *melh₂-der. Ancient Greek μᾰλᾰκός (mălăkós) Proto-Indo-European *-h₂ Proto-Indo-European *-éh₂ Proto-Indo-European *-i-eh₂ Ancient Greek -ῐ́ᾱ (-ĭ́ā) Ancient Greek μᾰλᾰκῐ́ᾱ (mălăkĭ́ā)bor. Latin malacia ▲ Latin bonusinflu. Vulgar Latin *bonacia Spanish bonanzabor. English bonanza Borrowed from Spanish bonanza (“dead calm, fair weather, good luck, rich lode”), from Vulgar Latin *bonacia (“lull, dead calm”), in turn from Latin malacia (“calm sea”), influenced by bonus (“good”) under the false impression that initial mal- is a derivate of malus (“bad”).
Related phrases
More for "bonanza"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.