tempest
Americannoun
-
a violent windstorm, especially one with rain, hail, or snow.
-
a violent commotion, disturbance, or tumult.
verb (used with object)
idioms
noun
-
literary a violent wind or storm
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a violent commotion, uproar, or disturbance
verb
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of tempest
1200–50; Middle English tempeste < Old French < Vulgar Latin *tempesta, for Latin tempestās season, weather, storm, equivalent to tempes- (variant stem of tempus time) + -tās -ty 2
Explanation
Shakespeare's The Tempest begins with one — a tempest, or a violent and windy storm. The meaning of tempest has expanded over time to include the idea of anger or fighting. A "tempest in a tea pot" means a passionate fight over something that is in fact fairly trivial. For example, a loud argument about whether to use cloth or paper napkins at Thanksgiving could be considered a "tempest in a tea pot" to some.
Vocabulary lists containing tempest
"Julius Caesar" by William Shakespeare, Act I
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"The Raven"
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The Tempest
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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:
Haiti's Civil Protection Agency reported two people died and another was injured Thursday when the tempest triggered a landslide in the west of the island nation.
From Barron's ● Oct. 25, 2025
But summoning this tempest is something of an act of will.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 23, 2025
When Ruben Amorim predicted a "storm would come" surely even he did not anticipate the scale of the tempest through December.
From BBC ● Jan. 9, 2025
He watched as one tempest swept away about $1 million in rides and other property in the span of 15 minutes.
From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 12, 2024
When I walked into Camp Four, six Sherpas were struggling to erect Hall’s tents in a 50-knot tempest.
From "Into Thin Air" by Jon Krakauer
Now, scientists have discovered that these massive tempests can also generate lightning far more powerful than anything typically seen on Earth.
From Science Daily ● May 21, 2026
Now small armies of amateur Internet sleuths and movie fans have joined the fray, turning gripes and teapot tempests into social media scandals.
From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 20, 2025
Over the years, ships lost in tempests have piled up on the seabed, themselves becoming hazards to vessels that drag nets around.
From National Geographic ● Dec. 15, 2023
This epilogue-like conversation — along with the prickly dynamic between these two hurting characters, both of whom, it is made clear, are carrying around their own private tempests — feel oddly static, even anticlimactic.
From Washington Post ● Mar. 23, 2022
We will overcome; we will endure all of life’s tempests.
From "Escape from Camp 14: One Man's Remarkable Odyssey from North Korea to Freedom in the West" by Blaine Harden
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.
