Thunder

/ˈθʌndə/ · noun

Meaning

The loud rumbling, cracking, or crashing sound caused by expansion of rapidly heated air around a lightning bolt..

Definitions by Sense

1. The loud rumbling, cracking, or crashing sound caused by expansion of rapidly heated air around a lightning bolt.
2. A deep, rumbling noise resembling thunder.
3. An alarming or startling threat or denunciation.
4. (obsolete) The discharge of electricity; a thunderbolt.
5. (literature) Synonym of thunder word.
6. (impersonal) To produce thunder; to sound, rattle, or roar, as a discharge of atmospheric electricity.
7. (intransitive) To make a noise like thunder.
8. (ergative) To (make something) move very fast (with loud noise).

Example Sentences

Thunder is preceded by lightning.

Thunder cracked overhead.

With each clap of thunder echoing from one high building to another the noise was terrific.

Off in the distance, he heard the thunder of hoofbeats, signalling a stampede.

The thunders of the Vatican could no longer strike into the heart of princes.

The revenging gods / 'Gainst parricides did all their thunders bend.

Adam's fall and Vico's thunder are embodied in a word of a hundred letters, the first of ten thunders in the Wake.

It thundered continuously.

Synonyms for thunder

Antonyms for thunder

Related Words

Word Forms

• thunders
• thundering
• thundered
• no-table-tags
• glossary
• thunder
• thunderest
• thunderedst
• thundereth
• -

Usage Notes

Choose a synonym only when it preserves the intended meaning, tone, and grammar of the full sentence.

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