Cannonade is a noun that refers to a continuous bombardment or effort.

Our word of the day is derived from the word cannon, a large, heavy piece of artillery. Cannon has its origin in Italian and once it evolved into cannonade, it came to refer to a period of continuous gunfire.

But cannonade can also be used metaphorically to refer to any kind of attack — even a verbal one. For example: After he was laid off, Andy delivered an angry cannonade to the company’s management. This stunned me. Before this, I’d never seen Andy make any such verbal attack on anyone.