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
A thunderhead towers above the rising sun, and the picture turns out beautifully.
From Slate ● May 11, 2015
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
Cal looked over his shoulder at a thunderhead sailing blackly over the mountains on the nervous March wind.
From "East of Eden" by John Steinbeck
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Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.