From Middle English erthequake, corresponding to earth + quake.

• (RP) IPA: /ˈɜːθkweɪk/
• (America) IPA: /ˈɝθkweɪk/

earthquake (plural earthquakes)

1. A shaking of the ground, caused by volcanic activity or movement around geologic faults. [from 14th c.]
   • 1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book III, Canto II”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC ↗:

     Her alablaster brest she soft did kis, / Which all that while shee felt to pant and quake, / As it an Earth-quake were: at last she thus bespake.

2. (planetary geology) Such a quake specifically occurring on the planet Earth, as opposed to other celestial bodies. [from 20th c.]
   • 1988, Jürgen Oberst, Yosio Nakamura, “A seismic risk for the lunar base”, in The Second Conference on Lunar Bases and Space Activities of the 21st Century, volume 1, NASA, pages 231–233:

     Since the response of some man-made structures to the ground motion near the epicenter is highly dependent on frequency, a significant difference in potential damage to the structures is expected between earthquakes and moonquakes.

   • 2006, Bruce A. Bolt, Earthquakes, Fifth Edition:

     The wave patterns, too, are strikingly different: The secondary (S) waves and surface waves on lunar seismograms are not generally as clearly defined and distinct as are those of earthquakes.

3. (figuratively) A sudden and intense upheaval; a severely disruptive event.

• earthdin
• quake
• seism
• temblor
• terremote
• tremblor
• tremor

• moonquake
• seaquake
• starquake

• French: tremblement de terre, séisme
• German: Erdbeben
• Italian: terremoto, sisma, tremuoto (obsolete)
• Portuguese: sismo, terramoto (Portugal), terremoto (Brazil), tremor de terra, tremor,
• Russian: землетрясе́ние
• Spanish: terremoto (in Latin American Spanish, used mainly for destructive earthquakes), temblor, sismo (formal, Latin America), seísmo (formal, Spain)

earthquake (earthquakes, present participle earthquaking; simple past and past participle earthquaked)

1. (intransitive) To undergo an earthquake.
   • 1993, Gyeorgos C. Hatonn, The Best of Times: The Worst of Times, page 129:

     Watch the Philippines very closely for the next little while. There is rumbling and earthquaking deep within Pinatubo and increased earthquaking within Mayon.