thunderbolt
Americannoun
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thunderbolts
plural
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a flash of lightning with the accompanying thunder.
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an imaginary bolt or dart conceived as the material destructive agent cast to earth in a flash of lightning.
the thunderbolts of Jove.
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something very destructive, terrible, severe, sudden, or startling.
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a person who acts with fury or with sudden and irresistible force.
noun
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a flash of lightning accompanying thunder
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the imagined agency of destruction produced by a flash of lightning
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(in mythology) the destructive weapon wielded by several gods, esp the Greek god Zeus See also Thor
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something very startling
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of thunderbolt
First recorded in 1400–50, thunderbolt is from late Middle English thondre bolte. See thunder, bolt 1
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:
Cameroon also fell behind, against Mozambique in Agadir, but a thunderbolt from Christian Kofane delivered a 2-1 victory.
From Barron's ● Dec. 31, 2025
While sticking Cillo into a varsity game would attract a thunderbolt of attention, Clark has been waiting for an appropriate moment.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 16, 2025
For me, it was a thunderbolt of thrill followed by pure abject terror that we might disappoint or “not have something good for her.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 5, 2024
The higher-for-longer inflation predicament has hit the U.S. housing market like a thunderbolt.
From New York Times ● Apr. 12, 2024
“I must go personally to purify this thunderbolt in the waters of Lemnos, to remove the human taint from its metal.”
From "The Lightning Thief" by Rick Riordan
Some of them resemble branching snowflakes, thunderbolts or neurons, whispering the unique expression of the artist's vision.
From Science Daily ● Mar. 3, 2024
Raining basketballs, strobe lights, rotating school hallways, CGI thunderbolts?
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 24, 2023
Fiji struck with, as England head coach Steve Borthwick put it, "a couple of thunderbolts" as they scored two tries in quick succession to level things late on, but England found a way to win.
From BBC ● Oct. 15, 2023
"I think Diana ... will be hurling thunderbolts on coronation day, that's for sure," royal author Tina Brown told Reuters.
From Reuters ● May 6, 2023
They were wonderful workmen and they forged his thunderbolts.
From "Mythology: Timeless Tales of Gods and Heroes" by Edith Hamilton
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.
