adjective
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characterized by a large rainfall
a rainy climate
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wet or showery; bearing rain
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Adjectives
Etymology
Origin of rainy
before 1000; Middle English reyny, Old English rēnig. See rain, -y 1
Explanation
Rainy things are affected by rain in some way, like rainy weather or a rainy afternoon. You can describe certain places as rainy, like Mt. Waialeale on the Hawaiian island of Kauai, or Mawsynram in India, both of which are often cited as being the most rainy place on earth. The phrase "a rainy day" uses rainy figuratively, to represent possible future bad luck or hard times: "You should always save some of your salary in case of a rainy day."
Vocabulary lists containing rainy
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:
But the winter had been rainy, and the beginning of spring as well.
From Barron's ● Sep. 27, 2026
A pre-El Niño reminder: Turn off your automatic watering during rainy periods.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 22, 2026
"As far as I know, there was no warning. There were occasional mudslides and landslides, especially in the rainy season, but this one seems much more serious."
From BBC ● Aug. 26, 2026
“Treasury is not going to utilize its entire rainy day fund to fund its buyback program. This is not exactly Draghi-esque, a do-whatever-it-takes moment. This is not Ben Bernanke’s bazooka,” Brusuelas said.
From MarketWatch ● Aug. 24, 2026
The weather was neither fair nor rainy, neither hot nor cold, but somewhere in between, “as English weather is like to be,” said the friar.
From "The Door in the Wall" by Marguerite de Angeli
"When you get hot spells, they're that much hotter. And when you get rainy spells, they're that much rainier," he said.
From Barron's ● Jun. 19, 2026
It's possible there were more hostile places on earth on Wednesday evening than Pittodrie; windier, rainier, colder, noisier.
From BBC ● Dec. 4, 2024
In some parts of the state, though, it’s been much rainier than normal.
From New York Times ● Feb. 27, 2024
“It will shift to rainier, colder and windier” weather, she said.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jan. 27, 2024
And you know when it rains in Chicago, it's wetter, and muddier, and rainier than any place in the world.
From Half Portions by Edna Ferber
The decades of Genghis’s rise, the author tells us, were Central Asia’s rainiest in 2,000 years.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 16, 2026
One of the rainiest springs on record boosted warm soup sales while denting those for sun cream, new figures suggest.
From BBC ● Jun. 18, 2024
Though Pu’u Kukui, the highest peak in the West Maui Mountains, remains one of the rainiest locations on the planet, the once-flourishing mid-elevation hillsides are droughted and eroding.
From Salon ● Dec. 7, 2023
When a new football stadium was built at South Alabama, located in one of America’s rainiest cities, the decision was made to go with an artificial turf playing surface.
From Seattle Times ● Oct. 9, 2023
Sometimes, on spring days, there will be the brightest, warmest sun and the darkest, rainiest clouds sharing the sky.
From "Ida B" by Katherine Hannigan
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.
