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
The attack fell like a thunderbolt on the country’s tightly knit Jewish community.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Dec. 15, 2025
That’s why the revision by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention of its advisory on vaccines and autism struck like a thunderbolt, and not in a good way.
From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 25, 2025
The higher-for-longer inflation predicament has hit the U.S. housing market like a thunderbolt.
From New York Times ● Apr. 12, 2024
There was dead silence until—boom!—a huge thunderbolt clattered overhead and the whole kit and caboodle made a beeline out of there.
From "The Seven Wonders of Sassafras Springs" by Betty G. Birney
Across the floor and walls sprawl grand mosaics and sculptures depicting lions, piles of gold, thunderbolts and ancient Roman gods.
From BBC ● Sep. 16, 2025
James Baldwin wrote thunderbolts of truth about American racism that changed the way people have understood and debated the issue since.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 6, 2024
Some of them resemble branching snowflakes, thunderbolts or neurons, whispering the unique expression of the artist's vision.
From Science Daily ● Mar. 3, 2024
"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.
