graupel
Americannoun
noun
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A small, white ice particle that falls as precipitation and breaks apart easily when it lands on a surface.
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Also called snow pellet soft hail
Etymology
Origin of graupel
1885–90; < German; diminutive of Graupe hulled grain
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.
“And multiple showers will just follow to rain. We’ll only be concerned about maybe a few snowflakes and graupel, smaller than hail, during the nighttime overnight hours.”
From Seattle Times • Mar. 2, 2024
The embryos grow into soft ice pellets called graupel, says Sonia Lasher-Trapp, an atmospheric scientist at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
From Scientific American • Aug. 11, 2023
But in Los Angeles, meteorologists reported a rare sight, when snow, or graupel — the soft, wet precipitation that is not quite as hard as hail — descended on the Hollywood sign.
From New York Times • Mar. 3, 2023
Hailstones begin as embryos, which include graupel or sleet, and then grow in size.
From Los Angeles Times • Feb. 24, 2023
In Sacramento, the state capital, the weather service said it had received reports of something that might be either hail or graupel — soft, wet snowflakes encased in supercooled water droplets.
From Seattle Times • Feb. 23, 2023
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.
