Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. A tropical cyclone occurring in the western Pacific or Indian oceans.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. A violent hurricane occurring in the China seas and their environs, principally during the months of July, August, September, and October Typhoons are prolonged cyclonic storms of great intensity, and correspond in every respect to the West Indian hurricanes which occur in the same latitudes in the western hemisphere.
Wiktionary
- n. A weather phenomenon in the Eastern Pacific that is precisely equivalent to a hurricane, which results in wind speeds of 64 knots (118km/h) or above. Equivalent to a cyclone in the Indian Ocean and Indonesia/Australia.
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. A violent whirlwind; specifically, a violent whirlwind occurring in the Chinese seas.
WordNet 3.0
- n. a tropical cyclone occurring in the western Pacific or Indian oceans
Etymologies
- Probably ultimately of Sinitic origin, Mandarin 大风 (dàfēng, "big wind"), Cantonese 大風 (daai6 fung1, "big wind"), via Arabic طوفان (ṭūfān), Hindi तूफ़ान (tūfān), and Persian توفان (tufân). Given the location of typhoons as a Pacific Ocean phenomenon, it is more likely it began east and moved west. Ancient Greek Τυφῶν (Tuphōn, "Typhon, father of the winds") is unrelated but has secondarily contaminated the word. (Wiktionary)
- Greek tuphōn, whirlwind, and Arabic ṭūfān, deluge (from Greek tuphōn), and Chinese (Cantonese) taaîfung (equivalent to Chinese (Mandarin) tái, great + Chinese (Mandarin) fēng, wind). (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“Here are the main dates in its history: 1974: Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev gives a speech talking about a new type of ballistic nuclear missile submarine and mentions the word 'typhoon,' prompting Nato to christen the new vessel the Typhoon class.”
Telegraph.co.uk - Telegraph online, Daily Telegraph and Sunday Telegraph
“A so-called "super typhoon" is bearing down on the northern Philippines, prompting evacuations of thousands of people from coastal areas threatened with destructive winds, rain and storm surges.”
Voice of America: Evacuations in Philippines as 'Super Typhoon' Nears
“Even beyond the natural, Umi thinks the typhoon is “a ship for spirits”, carrying more than fish far from home.”
“According to reports, the slightly weakened typhoon is now bound for China, where residents are racing to prepare before it touches ground this coming Saturday, bringing with it heavy rains and strong winds.”
The Huffington Post: Typhoon Megi Leaves Philippines In Shambles (PHOTOS)
“The same type of storm is known as a typhoon in the western Pacific Ocean or cyclone in the Indian Ocean.”
USA Today: Fierce forecast: Feds predict up to 10 hurricanes in 2011
“A typhoon is one of the most awesome things known to man.”
“Then his schooner, the Merry Mist, got caught in typhoon, four men surviving in a boat with boxes of square-face gin and dynamite.”
“From what I've been told, a typhoon is headed this way.”
“As the seasonal typhoon is sudden and fierce, so the sentiment of the people reveals an unexpected and deep intensity.”
“But Sir John Davis (ii. 383) is hardly correct when he says, "the name typhoon, in itself a corruption of the Chinese term, bears a singular (though we must suppose an accidental) resemblance to the Greek {Greek letters}.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘typhoon’.
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Loanwords
Since English is littered with loanwords, everything could conceivably end up here. But there is a distinct feeling associated with these.. maybe they're young additions to the English language; I ...
iceberg, fjord, firth, abbey, abyss, anorak, apartheid, assassin, avalanche, avocado, balaclava, banana and 104 more...
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Up In The Air @ Wordnik
List of words, terms, and phrases pertaining to or referencing anything that lives, traverses, moves in, uses, or otherwise occupies the space above the ground we walk on. Words and phrases contain...
aeroallergen, aerial, aerial mapping, aerial root, aerobe, aerobiology, aerobioscope, aelophilous, anemotropism, anemoclastic, anafront, antitrades and 273 more...
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Brand Theft Auto
A marque list for cars--models or companies who've used common words as their name.
explorer, navigator, frontier, mustang, quest, cougar, sidekick, legend, legacy, ranger, voyager, civic and 266 more...
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Of Arabic Origin
Arabic loanwords in English are words acquired directly from Arabic or else indirectly by passing from Arabic into other languages and then into English. Most entered one or more of the Romance lan...
admiral, adobe, albatross, alchemy, alcohol, alcove, alembic, alfalfa, algebra, algorism, algorithm, alidade and 181 more...
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Words build meanings from origins( et...
These come from gamma meditation ,I think.
discursive, exogenous, machinations, purportedly, sumptuous, congruity, cantankerous, incongruous, festoon, hessian, ratiocinative, stratigraphic and 2057 more...
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Rainy weather report.
Today's weather.
is it rain, sprinkles, showers, sleet, or drizzle?
Are those drops, droplets?
Is the weatherman just using the word precipitation?
Is the scientist causing ...rain, shower, sprinkle, sleet, drizzle, drops, droplets, precipitation, freezing rain, thundershower, mist, pour and 126 more...
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Nature and Environment
north, east, west, mountain, sea, beach, river, northeast, northwest, southeast, southwest, island and 205 more...
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Wind-related
aeolius, boreal, sirocco, zephyr, chinook, favonius, typhoon, monsoon, cyclone, notus, eurus, hyperborea and 11 more...
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What's That Pokémon Name?
Words used to create the names of Pokémon, which are usually portmanteaux.
bulb, dinosaur, ivy, venus, char, salamander, squirt, turtle, blast, tortoise, water, caterpillar and 525 more...
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Potpourri
eponymous, aa, pulchritude, gizmo, macabre, sui generis, solecism, solipsism, eldritch, samizdat, queue, obsequious and 469 more...
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-oons (once of more than one syllable)
Originally this list was to contain multisyllabic words that end in "oon," but as you can see from the comments, all hell broke loose.
doubloon, poltroon, spittoon, patroon, dragoon, bassoon, platoon, typhoon, rangoon, maroon, pontoon, monsoon and 96 more...
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imogen's Words
coagitate, cloche, harum-scarum, foxglove, cryptolect, cant, roux, angora, duff, ulysse, schadenfreude, pepperpot and 315 more...
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Words grabbed from real life conversa...
If I've seen it, heard it, or marvelled at it, I'll stick it here.
cruft, ermine, redundant, shakespearean, camino, marvelous, stupendous, chagrin, shaven, sleek, smug, stillness and 325 more...
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lanas's Words
serendipitous, insouciant, charming, sanguine, dear, odd, quaint, small, tremble, blush, flirt, tryst and 248 more...
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Vocab++
Words as I learn them.
fetid, mezzanine, hiatus, austerity, subliminal, resplendent, implacable, impugn, debase, exiguous, cirque, holster and 2538 more...
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Whaleworthy & Piratical Words
A list of favorite nautical words to be sprinkled liberally throughout speech for piratical or Melvillian effect.
batten down, back and fill, beamy, baulking, beckets, bilge, bold shore, boomjumper, breaker, larboard, abaft, ash breeze and 156 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for typhoon.
fbharjo Etymology: from Persian word Toofaan ( طو�?ان ) Aug 30, 2009
liu_xing = big wind (from Chinese)
Jan 22, 2007