Cascade
Etymology
From Italian cascata, "a waterfall," from cascare, "to fall" (ultimately from Latin casus, "a falling"). The image is water tumbling from one ledge to the one below. Science borrowed the picture for any sequence where each stage sets off the following one, from biochemical signaling to power-grid failures.
noun · /kas-KAYD/
A chain of events in which each step triggers the next, so a small initial change can grow into a large downstream one.
What it names
How one failure or decision tips over the next, and the next — the reason a minor local problem can end up bringing down the whole system.
Example
Missing the alarm set off a cascade: no breakfast, a missed train, a late arrival, and a meeting rescheduled for the worst possible afternoon.
Related idea
A cascade is a chain that runs one way and stops; a feedback loop bends the output back onto the input, so the effect can keep amplifying itself.
noun · /kas-KAYD/
A small steep waterfall, or a series of them tumbling down a slope.
What it names
the literal spilling water — a stream falling over rock after rock
Example
The stream dropped in a series of cascades down the mountainside.
Related idea
The chain-of-events sense pictures consequences tumbling like water down rock after rock, each step spilling into the next — a small catalyst at the top swelling into a flood below.