: a cloud charged with electricity and producing lightning and thunder
Example Sentences
We watched the gathering thunderclouds.
Recent Examples on the WebStorm creates a roaming thundercloud that tracks enemies like Silence and Squall, and zaps them with lightning. Paul Tassi, Forbes, 18 Aug. 2022 That thought bubble then dogs the movie like a dumb, fat thundercloud. Stephanie Zacharek, Time, 18 Mar. 2022 Custardy but dense with mystery, charged with spice and sweetness and a telltale hint of iron, the dish is a thundercloud of texture and flavor. Bill Addison, Los Angeles Times, 6 Jan. 2022 The schoolbook picture is that, inside a thundercloud, hail falls as lighter ice crystals rise. Thomas Lewton, Quanta Magazine, 20 Dec. 2021 For decades, a good word in one of their columns was the syrup on a mogul’s pancakes; a bad one meant a thundercloud over Burbank.The New Yorker, 28 June 2021 Her gesture cut through the dispiriting circumstances, like a ray of sun through a dark thundercloud. Spencer Case, National Review, 20 Feb. 2020 For hundreds of millions of years, thunderclouds and their lightning have been natural partners to fire. Matt Simon, Wired, 6 Jan. 2020 Though lightning had been suspected to play a role, the thundercloud energies observed in previous experiments were not great enough to explain the terrestrial gamma-ray flashes. Adam Mann, National Geographic, 23 Apr. 2019 See More
Word History
First Known Use
1697, in the meaning defined above
Kids Definition
thundercloud
noun
thun·der·cloud ˈthən-dər-ˌklau̇d
: a dark storm cloud that produces lightning and thunder