hailstone
Americannoun
-
hailstones
plural
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, 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
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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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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.