cirrus
Americannoun
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Meteorology.
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a cloud of a class characterized by thin white filaments or narrow bands and a composition of ice crystals: of high altitude, about 20,000–40,000 feet (6000–12,000 meters).
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a cirriform cloud.
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Botany. a tendril.
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Zoology.
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a filament or slender appendage serving as a foot, tentacle, barbel, etc.
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the male copulatory organ of flatworms and various other invertebrates.
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noun
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meteorol a thin wispy fibrous cloud at high altitudes, composed of ice particles
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a plant tendril or similar part
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zoology
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a slender tentacle or filament in barnacles and other marine invertebrates
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a hairlike structure in other animals, such as a filament on the appendage of an insect or a barbel of a fish
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A high-altitude cloud composed of feathery white patches or bands of ice crystals. Cirrus clouds generally form between 6,100 and 12,200 m (20,000 and 40,000 ft).
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See illustration at cloud
Etymology
Origin of cirrus
1700–10; < Latin: a curl, tuft, plant filament like a tuft of hair
Vocabulary lists containing cirrus
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.
The most likely explanation is the presence of thick but uneven water ice clouds, similar to cirrus clouds high in Earth's atmosphere -- an unexpected complication.
From Science Daily • Apr. 22, 2026
Sun halos are optical illusions created when ice crystals form in the correct shape in the upper atmosphere, usually accompanying thin, wispy cirrus clouds.
From New York Times • Apr. 15, 2024
The remaining, thinner cirrus clouds would allow more long-wave radiation emanating from Earth to escape to space.
From Scientific American • Sep. 20, 2023
Brilliant red, orange and scarlet sunsets often take place in the presence of higher cirrus or altocumulus clouds instead of low-level clouds such as stratus or stratocumulus.
From Washington Post • Apr. 13, 2023
"Now, get along with you," she said softly, and looked at him, half regretfully, with eyes as violet as the cirrus clouds, high in the dawn sky.
From "Stardust" by Neil Gaiman
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.
