thunder

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“
Some of the Hurons and Iroquois, however, held that the thunder was a giant in human form.

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Definitions (29)

Toggle American Heritage definitions American Heritage Dictionary (6)

  1. noun The crashing or booming sound produced by rapidly expanding air along the path of the electrical discharge of lightning.
  2. noun A sound that resembles or suggests thunder.
  3. intransitive verb To produce thunder.
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Toggle Century definitions Century Dictionary (13)

Toggle GNU Webster definitions GNU Webster's 1913 (3)

Toggle WordNet definitions WordNet (7)

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Examples (50)

  • We experience thunder -- thunder, thunder. —  Evelyn Glennie shows how to listen
  • To me the thunder was “stage” thunder, the lightning man-made, and the accompanying rain due to some clever contrivance of my persecutors. —  A Mind That Found Itself
  • Lightning was searing the sky and the thunder was a continuous crashing. —  Killing Floor by Lee Child
  • "He struck out a couple times, but the thunder is always there."
  • They are grieving for her, and the thunder is a sign of their grief. —  The Science of Fairy Tales An Inquiry into Fairy Mythology
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Roget's II Roget's II: The New Thesaurus

Allen's Allen's Synonyms and Antonyms

Used in the same context Used in the Same Context

roar ·  rumble ·  explosion ·  crash ·  noise ·  lightning ·  storm ·  rattle ·  hiss ·  hum ·  rush ·  thud

Used in the same contextWord Family

thunder:   thundered ·  thundering ·  thunders
Roget's II: The New Thesaurus, Third Edition by the Editors of the American Heritage® Dictionary. Copyright © 2003, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Etymologies (3)

Toggle American Heritage etymologies American Heritage Dictionary (1)

  1. Middle English, from Old English thunor; see (s)tenə- in Indo-European roots.

Toggle Century etymologies Century Dictionary (2)

  1. from Middle English thunder, thonder, thondre (with excrescent d as also in the D. form), earlier thoner, thuner (later English dial. thunner), from Anglo-Saxon thunor (genitive thunres, thonres), thunder (Thunor, also, after Icelandic, Thur, the god of thunder. Thor), = Old Saxon Thuner, the god of thunder, = OFries. thuner = Dutch donder = Old High German donar, Middle High German doner, German donner, thunder (Old High German Donar, the god of thunder, Thor). = Icelandic Thōrr (dative and accusative Thōr, in Runic inscriptions also Thur), the god of thunder, Thor (cf. Icelandic Thundr (genitive Thundar), one of the names of Odin—apparently a reflex of the Anglo-Saxon or English word), = Swedish Danish Tor, the god of thunder, Thor (Swedish tor-dön, Danish tor-den, thunder: Swedish dön (later dån) = Danish dön = English din), = Gothic (Moesogothic) *thunars (not recorded); akin to L. tonitrus, rarely tonitru, tonitruum, thunder, Sanskrit tanyatu, thunder, tanayitnus, roaring, thundering; from a verb shown in Anglo-Saxon thunian, rattle, roar, thuuder, Latin tonare, roar, thunder (cf. Anglo-Saxon tonian (rare), Middle Dutch donen, thunder), Sanskrit √ tan, roar. This root is usually identified with that of Anglo-Saxon thynne, English thin, etc. (see thin), the development being variously explained: e. g., ‘extension, sound, noise, thunder.’ But the two are no doubt entirely distinct: the sense ‘tone’ in Greek τόνος is developed from that of ‘tension’ in quite another way. The √ tan, thunder, is perhaps the same, without the initial s, as the √ stan, in Greek στένειν = Lithuanian steneti = Russian stenatĭ, stonatě, groan, = Sanskrit √ stan, roar, thunder, English stun, etc. (a similar double root in st- and t- is shown in the etymology of thatch and other words: see stun). Hence thunder, v., and the first element of Thursday, and, from the Scandinavian, Thor.
  2. from Middle English thunderen, thonderen, thuneren, thoneren (later English dial. thunner), from Anglo-Saxon thunrian = Dutch donderen = Old High German donarōn, Middle High German donren, MG. dunren, German donnern = Swedish dundra = Danish dundre, thunder; from the noun.
 

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