thunderbolt
Americannoun
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a flash of lightning with the accompanying thunder.
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an imaginary bolt or dart conceived as the material destructive agent cast to earth in a flash of lightning.
the thunderbolts of Jove.
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something very destructive, terrible, severe, sudden, or startling.
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a person who acts with fury or with sudden and irresistible force.
noun
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a flash of lightning accompanying thunder
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the imagined agency of destruction produced by a flash of lightning
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(in mythology) the destructive weapon wielded by several gods, esp the Greek god Zeus See also Thor
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something very startling
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of thunderbolt
First recorded in 1400–50, thunderbolt is from late Middle English thondre bolte. See thunder, bolt 1
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:
Ermedin Demirovic unleashed a thunderbolt in the 90th minute to send Stuttgart into the top four with a 1-0 home win over Freiburg in the Bundesliga on Sunday.
From Barron's ● Feb. 1, 2026
While sticking Cillo into a varsity game would attract a thunderbolt of attention, Clark has been waiting for an appropriate moment.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 16, 2025
For me, it was a thunderbolt of thrill followed by pure abject terror that we might disappoint or “not have something good for her.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 5, 2024
The higher-for-longer inflation predicament has hit the U.S. housing market like a thunderbolt.
From New York Times ● Apr. 12, 2024
But I had so much work to do following that singular day when, floating in the river and looking at the sky, I’d been struck by a thunderbolt of understanding about grasshoppers and—really—the world itself.
From "The Evolution of Calpurnia Tate" by Jacqueline Kelly
Canada’s star was David Winckworth, who made 12 with the bat before sending down a few round-arm thunderbolts of his own, taking four wickets as the Americans were dismissed for 64.
From BBC ● May 29, 2024
Some of them resemble branching snowflakes, thunderbolts or neurons, whispering the unique expression of the artist's vision.
From Science Daily ● Mar. 3, 2024
Raining basketballs, strobe lights, rotating school hallways, CGI thunderbolts?
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 24, 2023
"I think Diana ... will be hurling thunderbolts on coronation day, that's for sure," royal author Tina Brown told Reuters.
From Reuters ● May 6, 2023
But Chen wanted to incur thunderbolts during drought.
From "The Woman Warrior" by Maxine Hong Kingston
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.
