roller coaster

/ˌˈroʊlər ˌkoʊstər/

/ˈrʌʊlə ˈkʌʊstə/

Other forms: roller coasters

A roller coaster is a ride at a fair or amusement park. A roller coaster carries you quickly along a railroad-type track, sending you up and down steep hills and around sharp turns.

When you ride a roller coaster, you sit in an open-topped car, usually in a long chain of connected carriages that creep up and then plunge down hills. Some roller coasters take their riders upside down in loops or through scary tunnels. The earliest wooden roller coasters were built in the 1800s, and the first modern, steel roller coaster was constructed at Disneyland in 1959. In Japan, they're called "jet coasters."

Definitions of roller coaster

1. noun

   elevated railway in an amusement park (usually with sharp curves and steep inclines)
   synonyms: big dipper, chute-the-chute

   types:

   hypercoaster

   a roller coaster that goes up 200 feet or higher and can catapult riders from 0 to 70 mph in 4 seconds by motors originally designed to launch rockets

   type of:

   el, elevated, elevated railroad, elevated railway, overhead railway

   a railway that is powered by electricity and that runs on a track that is raised above the street level

   ride

   a mechanical device that you ride for amusement or excitement
2. noun

   anything characterized by abrupt and extreme changes (especially up and down)
   “the economy has been on a roller coaster all year”

   type of:

   Sturm und Drang, turbulence, upheaval

   a state of violent disturbance and disorder (as in politics or social conditions generally)