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Synonyms

hailstone

American  
[hayl-stohn] / ˈheɪlˌstoʊn /

noun

  • hailstones
    plural
  1. a pellet of hail.


hailstone British  
/ ˈheɪlˌstəʊn /

noun

  1. a pellet of hail

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

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

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:

"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

That office’s meteorologist-in-charge, Chris Darden, said it was the first U.S. hailstone measured for volume.

From Seattle Times ● Apr. 13, 2018

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

Large hailstones, some the size of £1 coins, fell in a 20-minute burst over the city, with some roads also flooded in the city centre.

From BBC ● Aug. 14, 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

No thunder, no earthquake that split open the ground, no hailstones big as heads.

From "The Woman Warrior" by Maxine Hong Kingston

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