Somersault
/ˈsʌməˌsɒlt/ noun, verb
noun, verb ·Moderate ·College level
Definitions
Noun
- 1 Starting on one's feet, an instance of rotating one's body 360 degrees while airborne or on the ground, with one's feet passing over one's head.
- 2 an acrobatic feat in which the feet roll over the head (either forward or backward) and return wordnet
Verb
- 1 To perform a somersault.
"The performer somersaulted all the way across the stage."
- 2 do a somersault wordnet
Example
More examples"Tom did a somersault on the trampoline."
Etymology
From French sombresault (now obsolete, compare French sursaut, soubresaut), from Old Occitan sobresalt, from sobre- (“over, above”) + salt (“jump”), from Latin suprā (“over”) + saltus (“jump”). Doublet of soubresaut. Cognate with Spanish sobresaltar (“to spook, startle”) and Portuguese sobressaltar (“to spook, scare, jump over”).