tempest
Americannoun
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tempests
plural
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a violent windstorm, especially one with rain, hail, or snow.
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a violent commotion, disturbance, or tumult.
verb (used with object)
idioms
noun
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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:
Celtic couldn't throw a bucket of water in Rangers' direction not to mind a tempest.
From BBC ● Sep. 13, 2026
The irony of the latest tempest is that Cook is probably most responsible for ushering in the technology that has made the current political moment possible: the camera phone.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jan. 27, 2026
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
Amid the film’s self-conscious depiction of a brewing tempest, he remains a true force of nature.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 3, 2025
It’s calm, too calm, yellow fluttering birds that don’t belong in this life-bucking tempest.
From "I'll Give You the Sun" by Jandy Nelson
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
They have looked on the tempests of war, economic turmoil, civil unrest and seesawing politics and remained, as Shakespeare said, an ever-fixed mark, adapting to atmospheric shifts but essentially unchanged.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 2, 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
At the time of his resignation, his decision to step down humbled and humanized a pope whose papacy had become associated with tempests.
From New York Times ● Dec. 31, 2022
I hated these emotional outbursts, these tempests of passion, for they always left me tense and weak.
From "Black Boy" by Richard Wright
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.
