hailstone
Americannoun
noun
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of hailstone
before 1000; Middle English; Old English hagolstān. See hail 2, stone
Vocabulary lists containing hailstone
Weather and Climate - Introductory
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Weather and Climate - Middle School
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Earth Science - Middle School
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
He posted photos on X showing one home with its roof torn off and another missing roof shingles, as well as an image of a baseball-sized hailstone.
From Seattle Times ● Mar. 15, 2024
"These things do sometimes happen, something may have struck the window, for example a bird, a large hailstone, it's not unheard of".
From BBC ● Jan. 13, 2024
A person holds up a hailstone during a hailstorm in Girona, Spain August 30, 2022.
From Reuters ● Aug. 31, 2022
The current world record for a hailstone is 8 inches across, or about the size of a volleyball.
From Fox News ● May 5, 2020
Grinning, he gathered in one sweep all the mucus in his flaring nostrils and let fly a blob as thick as a hailstone.
From "Kaffir Boy: An Autobiography" by Mark Mathabane
There were "hailstones as big as toes with torrential rain, thunderstorm and lightning", he said.
From BBC ● Jul. 19, 2025
On Monday night, hailstones piled up in doorways, making it impossible to open them and creating dams that pushed rainwater into buildings, he said.
From Seattle Times ● May 21, 2024
Those hailstones can cause significant damage to homes and cars, a growing worry as warming temperatures fuel more destructive storms.
From New York Times ● Mar. 22, 2024
Locals were also hit by huge hailstones "bigger than golf balls".
From BBC ● Nov. 2, 2023
Yet when Precious Coins was about to be born and the hospital miles away with bombs falling like hailstones, it was Mother alone who soothed the frantic household and quietly delivered the baby.
From "In the Year of the Boar and Jackie Robinson" by Bette Bao Lord
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
