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Synonyms

hailstone

American  
[heyl-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:

He posted photos on X, formerly Twitter, showing one home with its roof torn off and another with roof shingles and himself holding a baseball-sized hailstone.

From Seattle Times Mar. 14, 2024

That is, the hailstone Mr. Scott collected in 2010, which measured eight inches across and weighed nearly two pounds, was no longer the largest ever recorded.

From New York Times Sep. 5, 2022

A 20-month-old child has died in Spain after being struck on the head by a hailstone.

From BBC Aug. 31, 2022

A person holds up a hailstone during a hailstorm in Girona, Spain August 30, 2022.

From Reuters Aug. 31, 2022

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

Residents in parts of New South Wales and South Australia were shocked to find hailstones the size of golf balls blanketing their lawns in summer.

From BBC Dec. 27, 2023

Then the sky opened up and hailstones were everywhere.

From "The Wild Robot Escapes" by Peter Brown

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