thunderhead
Americannoun
-
the upper portion of a cumulus cloud characterized by dense, sharply defined, cauliflowerlike upper parts and sometimes by great verticality.
noun
Etymology
Origin of thunderhead
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.
Once a prehistoric denizen of the deeps, it comes ashore on a tsunami tide, tall as a thunderhead, shrugging off artillery as it bellows a foghorn scream.
From Scientific American ● Nov. 3, 2023
Last Wednesday, though, conditions led to the creation of a larger, taller cloud called a pyrocumulonimbus, which is similar to a thunderhead.
From New York Times ● Jul. 19, 2021
If the pilot of QZ5801 saw a massive thunderhead dead ahead, and was concerned enough to request a change in his flight path, then maybe he should have gone ahead and diverted, even without permission.
From Slate ● Dec. 29, 2014
A black grand piano hulked on one side, the heavy, distended ceiling bearing down on it ominously, like a thunderhead.
From The New Yorker ● Oct. 17, 2014
Like their master, the South Wind, they were conflicted—half hot, dry sirocco, half stormy thunderhead.
From "The House of Hades" by Rick Riordan
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.
