downpour

UK/ˈdaʊn.pɔː(ɹ)/

nounB1+Rare in speech; mostly a word you read · #14,391 of 15,258neutral

Other forms: downpours

A downpour is a sudden heavy fall of rain. Straight down, hard, and usually over in ten minutes.

The suddenness and the intensity together are what the word promises, so a downpour is not the same as a wet day. It is what catches people out on the way to a car. Sudden downpours are becoming more common as the atmosphere warms and holds more moisture, which is a real and measurable change. Cloudburst is the more dramatic word and a deluge is bigger still.

Definitions of downpour

1noundownpourA sudden heavy fall of rain.B1+
“They got caught in a downpour halfway home.”

Where it comes from

Middle English
doun
English
down
English, today
downpour

Built from

doune · Middle English — down
adūne · Old English — down, downward
ofdūne · Old English — down (literally “off the hill”)
of · Old English — of, off of

From down + pour. Compare typologically liják, ulewa, naliv, ли́вень (akin to лить). down comes from Middle English doun. From Middle English doun, doune (“down”), from Old English dūne (“down”), aphetic form of adūne (“down, downward”), from earlier ofdūne (“down”) literally “off the hill”, from of (“of, off of”) + dūn (“hill, mount, dune, down”). More at Etymology 2 below. For the development from directional phrases to prepositions, compare dene, dāle, whence dal. Compare also stq, del. Cognate with Scots doon (“down”).

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practised in A Man Called Ove, Weather & Seasons

First appears in chapter 8 of A Man Called Ove.

Practise this word

downpour in the wild

A deluge is a large downpour of rain, often a flood.
Deluge
The event attracted an estimated 200,000 people who were met with hot weather, then cold and a downpour replete with rain and mud.
Concert 10
Flooding in surrounding areas occurred in 1932 following a torrential downpour that caused the river and surrounding creeks to rise and flood a few hours later.
Arrowsmith River
In August 1994, an 8-hour downpour caused massive damage in the state capital, wiping out most of the progress of the past three years.
Paul Omeruo

From Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. These sentences were written by other people about their own subjects; they are here to show the word at work, not as anybody’s opinion.

Related words

the doune family

down

downpour — used about once every 54,060 pages · #14,391 · point at the bar for the others

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