Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. An extended cloud formation of bluish or gray sheets or layers.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. A thin horizontal sheet of clouds, usually disappearing slowly: apparently a lower layer of what under favorable circumstances might have been a cumulus cloud. The outer surface, melting away at sunset, gives rise to beautiful sunset cloud-colors by reflection of light from the sun or the sky beyond the western horizon.
- n. A rather high cloud covering the sky as a layer whose lower surface is horizontal. The extreme boundaries of such an alto-stratus cloud thin away into a series of alto-cumuli.
Wiktionary
- n. physics, meteorology . A principal medium-level cloud type in the form of gray or bluish (never white) sheet or layer of striated, fibrous, or uniform appearance.
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. (Meteor.) A cloud formation similar to cirro-stratus, but heavier and at a lower level; a stratus cloud at an intermediate altitude of 2 or 3 miles.
WordNet 3.0
- n. a stratus cloud at an intermediate altitude of 2 or 3 miles
Etymologies
- Latin altus, high; see al-2 in Indo-European roots + stratus. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“Above 6,500 feet can be found altocumulus ("clumps or rolls") and altostratus (a "drab and featureless" haze), as well as the storm clouds nimbostratus ("dim, miserable") and cumulonimbus ("the shape of a blacksmith's anvil").”
“On this day, however, the sky, layered with thin altostratus clouds and smog, appeared to reflect human suffering and failed to awaken in Claude visions of paradise.”
“Weather Phenomenon Prior to the Passing of the Front Contact with the Front After the Passing of the Front Temperature Cool Warming suddenly Warmer then leveling off Atmospheric Pressure Decreasing steadily Leveling off Slight rise followed by a decrease Winds South to southeast Variable South to southwest Precipitation Showers, snow, sleet or drizzle Light drizzle None Clouds Cirrus, cirrostratus, altostratus, nimbostratus, and then stratus Stratus, sometimes cumulonimbus Clearing with scattered stratus, sometimes scattered cumulonimbus”
“High-altitude cirrus, cirrostratus and middle-altitude altostratus clouds are found well in advance of the front.”
“Along the gently sloping warm front, the lifting of moist air produces first nimbostratus clouds followed by altostratus and cirrostratus.”
“It was a good blue one, with a few puffy cirrocumulus clouds, and some altostratus thrown in for contrast.”
“With the thicker altostratus and nimbostratus clouds comes the rain, which is then followed by clear and warmer weather.”
“There was only one cloud to be seen, but it covered the entire soggy Irish sky, dropping rain all day - a "drizzling altostratus", since you ask.”
Telegraph.co.uk - Telegraph online, Daily Telegraph and Sunday Telegraph
“According to meteorologists, there will be a layer of scattered stratocumulus clouds between 2,500 feet and 5,000 feet, scattered altostratus clouds between 10,000 feet and 12,000 feet, and scattered cirrus clouds between 28,000 feet and 34,000 feet.”
“We would call out, cirrus, cumulus, stratus, altostratus and cumulonimbus from the back seat.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘altostratus’.
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Interesting words
A list of words that are odd or words that I have looked up.
concupiscence, brize, scree, scoria, forestaff, spanaemia, valetudinarianism, distasture, pyrethrum, laudanum, gentian, bicameral and 11184 more...
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Clouds
We owe our current names for clouds to Luke Howard. Wikipedia tells us that "Howard was not the first to attempt a classification of clouds—Jean-Baptiste Lamarck (1744–1829) had earlier proposed a ...
wane-cloud, stratus, cirrostratus, cirro-stratus, strato-cirrus, altostratus, salmon-cloud, cumulus, altocumulus lenti..., sonder-cloud, rain-cloud, nimbostratus and 205 more...
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Wild Weather
anabatic wind, stratiform, fractostratus, frazil slush, isodrosotherm, mammatus clouds, macroburst, nimbostratus, ribbon lightning, staccato lightning, subtropical jet, suction vortex and 76 more...
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Favourite Words
Words I find pretty, beautiful, and just all around unusual.
altostratus, marine, empire, illuminate, forest, wade, rose, monsoon, moogle
Tweets
Looking for tweets for altostratus.
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