Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun A high-altitude cloud composed of a series of small, regularly arranged cloudlets in the form of ripples or grains.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun physics, meteorology A principal high-level cloud type appearing as a thin, white patch of cloud without shadows, composed of very small droplets in the form of grains or ripples. The elements may be merged or separate, and more or less regularly arranged; they subtend an angle of less than 1° when observed at an angle of more than 30° above the horizon. Holes or rifts often occur in a sheet of cirrocumulus. Abbreviated Cc.

Etymologies

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Examples

  • A more accurate description might have been, "This cloud layer is in a condition between what we refer to as cirrocumulus and the one we call cirrus."

    unknown title 2009

  • Only at the highest levels—up to 45,000 feet—do we find the ice-crystal clouds cirrus ("like white locks of hair"), cirrocumulus ("like grains of rice") and cirrostratus ("a light, milky whitening of the blue").

    Cirrus Concerns Peter Pesic 2011

  • High-altitude clouds—cirrus, cirrocumulus, and cirrostratus—reside between three and seven miles above sea level.

    MY EMPIRE OF DIRT Manny Howard 2010

  • High-altitude clouds—cirrus, cirrocumulus, and cirrostratus—reside between three and seven miles above sea level.

    MY EMPIRE OF DIRT Manny Howard 2010

  • High-altitude clouds—cirrus, cirrocumulus, and cirrostratus—reside between three and seven miles above sea level.

    MY EMPIRE OF DIRT Manny Howard 2010

  • High-altitude clouds—cirrus, cirrocumulus, and cirrostratus—reside between three and seven miles above sea level.

    MY EMPIRE OF DIRT Manny Howard 2010

  • Around him, the mountains of southwest Montana towered, glistening peaks lit by snow at their higher altitudes, under a sky so blue it made your teeth ache and wads of cirrocumulus clouds piled high.

    A Bob Lee Swagger eBook Boxed Set Stephen Hunter 2009

  • Around him, the mountains of southwest Montana towered, glistening peaks lit by snow at their higher altitudes, under a sky so blue it made your teeth ache and wads of cirrocumulus clouds piled high.

    A Bob Lee Swagger eBook Boxed Set Stephen Hunter 2009

  • Around him, the mountains of southwest Montana towered, glistening peaks lit by snow at their higher altitudes, under a sky so blue it made your teeth ache and wads of cirrocumulus clouds piled high.

    A Bob Lee Swagger eBook Boxed Set Stephen Hunter 2009

  • It was a good blue one, with a few puffy cirrocumulus clouds, and some altostratus thrown in for contrast.

    Something Unpredictable Barbara Chepaitis 2003

Comments

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  • High-altitude cloud usually occurring at 16,000-40,000 feet.

    August 27, 2008