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thunderous

UK/ˈθʌn.də.ɹəs/US/ˈθʌn.dɚ.əs/
adjectiveC1Rare in speech; mostly a word you read · #12,237 of 15,258neutral

Thunderous means extremely loud and deep in sound. Thunderous applause, a thunderous roar, thunderous silence.

Thunderous applause is the fixed phrase and is the highest form of it. A thunderous expression is a different sense entirely and means a face like a storm about to break.

Definitions of thunderous

  1. 1adjectivethunderousExtremely loud and deep in sound.C1

    “The waterfall made a thunderous roar that we could hear from far away.”

thunderous is a quality.

Where it comes from

  1. Proto-Indo-European

    *(s)tenh₂-

  2. Proto-Indo-European

    *(s)ten-

  3. Proto-Germanic

    *þunraz

  4. Proto-West Germanic

    *þunr

  5. Old English

    þunor — thunder

  6. Middle English

    thunder

  7. English

    thunder

  8. English, today

    thunderous

Built from

  • *(s)tenh₂- · Proto-Indo-European — to thunder

From thunder + -ous. thunder comes from Middle English thunder, thonder, thundre, thonre, thunnere, þunre, from Old English þunor (“thunder”), from Proto-West Germanic þunr, from Proto-Germanic þunraz, from Proto-Indo-European (s)ten-, (s)tenh₂- (“to thunder”). Compare astound, astonish, stun. Germanic cognates include West Frisian tonger, Dutch donder, German Donner, Old Norse Þórr (English Thor), Danish torden, Norwegian Nynorsk tore. Other cognates include Persian تندر, Latin tonō, detonō, Ancient Greek στένω, στενάζω, στόνος, Στέντωρ, Irish torann, Welsh taran, cel-gau Taranis. a doublet of donner and Thunor and Thor.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practise this word

thunderous in the wild

  • Released on January 16, 1968, the album features a heavy-thunderous blues sound, which would later be known as heavy metal.

    Vincebus Eruptum

  • The meteor's explosion resulted in audible booms and thunderous sounds that shook the ground.

    2009 Sulawesi superbolide

  • The thunderous roars of drums beating wildly along with several local instruments reproduce the snarls of the regal predators and complete the picture.

    Puliyattam

  • "Ice" is a midtempo R&B song, which features a thunderous beat, finger snaps and light synth riffs.

    Ice (Kelly Rowland song)

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 þunor family

thunder

thunderous — used about once every 12,385 pages · #12,237 · point at the bar for the others