Torrential means falling in a violent rushing stream. Torrential rain, torrential downpour, torrential flooding.
It goes with rain more often than with anything else, and it means volume rather than duration. A torrent is the noun behind it, meaning a rushing flow of water.
1adjectivetorrentialFalling in a violent rushing stream.
“Torrential rain closed the road for the rest of the afternoon.”
torrential is a quality.
Proto-Indo-European
*ters-
Latin
torrentem
Italian
torrente
French
torrent
English
torrent
English, today
torrential
Built from
From torrent + -ial. torrent Borrowed from French torrent, from Italian torrente, from Latin torrentem, accusative of torrēns (“burning, seething, roaring”), from Latin torrēre (“to parch, scorch”).
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA