DictionaryAI

thunder

THUN-der/ˈθʌndɚ/UKTHUN-duh/ˈθʌndə/

Pluralthunders (some meanings)

Verbthunders, thundering, thundered

9 meanings of thunder

Practice

  1. 1
    sound of lightningnoununcountable
    The loud rumbling, cracking or crashing sound made when the air around a lightning bolt is rapidly heated and expands.

    A clap of thunder rattled the windows just as the power went out.

    Thunder rumbled over the hills for an hour before the first drops of rain fell.

    UsageA single burst is a clap of thunder or a crash of thunder. Thunder rumbles, rolls or crashes.

  2. 2
    make deep noiseverbintransitive
    To make a loud, deep noise that sounds like thunder.

    Cannons thundered from the fort all through the night.

    The engines thunder so loudly that the ground crew wears ear protection.

    Similarroar, boom, rumble

    Note

    The verb needs no object here: whatever makes the noise simply thunders. Add a path, as in a train thundering along the tracks, and the sound starts to carry movement with it, which is where the speeding sense takes over. The two are told apart by the point of the sentence: sound in this one, speed in the other.

  3. 3
    noununcountable
    A deep, rumbling noise that sounds like thunder.

    The thunder of the waterfall drowned out our voices long before we could see it.

    Above the thunder of hooves, the rider shouted for the herd to turn.

    UsageUsually the thunder of something: the thunder of hooves, of a waterfall, of traffic.

    Similarroar, rumble, boom

  4. 4
    verbtransitive or intransitive
    To move, or cause something to move, with great speed or force, often making a loud noise.

    Every night, freight trains thunder through the little station without even slowing down.

    The jockey thundered his horse down the final stretch to win by a length.

    UsageUsually with a direction: trains thunder through, trucks thunder past, a horse thunders down the stretch.

    Similarroar, rumble, hurtle, race, charge

  5. 5
    shout angrilyverbtransitive or intransitive
    To speak, or say something, in a loud and threatening voice.

    "Not one more word," the judge thundered from the bench.

    Preachers in the town would thunder against gambling every Sunday.

    UsageOften thunder against something, or used after a quotation like shouted.

    Similarbellow, roar, shout, boom, rail

    Oppositewhisper

  6. 6
    in a stormverbintransitive
    Used with it as the subject: to produce thunder, the roaring or rattling sound of a discharge of atmospheric electricity.

    It began to thunder just as the umpire called the players off the field.

    It had been thundering in the mountains since noon, and the river was rising.

Less common meanings

  1. 7
    nouncountable or uncountable
    A threat or denunciation that alarms or startles people.

    Despite the thunders of the church, the king went ahead with the marriage.

    The editor's weekly thunder against the city council kept officials on edge.

    UsageOften plural and with of: the thunders of the church. Also thunder against something.

    Similardenunciation, tirade, threat

    Note

    William H. Prescott's History of the Reign of Philip the Second (1855) observes that "the thunders of the Vatican could no longer strike terror into the hearts of princes." The picture recalls the old thunderbolt meaning: a threat imagined as a bolt that lands, or fails to.

  2. 8
    lightning boltnounobsoletecountable
    A discharge of electricity from the sky; a thunderbolt.
    The revenging gods / 'Gainst parricides did all their thunders bend.
    c. 1603, William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of King Lear”
    Note

    In this old use the word names the strike rather than its sound, which is how gods could aim their thunders like weapons: in Shakespeare's King Lear, "the revenging gods / 'Gainst parricides did all their thunders bend."

    Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 3 facts

    • Thunder formerly meant an electrical discharge or thunderbolt. en.wiktionary.org
    • King Lear is by William Shakespeare, and the quotation has the stated wording; its speaker is Edmund. gutenberg.org
    • The passage depicts gods directing their thunders against people. gutenberg.org
  3. 9
    noun
    One of the very long coined words in Finnegans Wake, also called a thunder word.

Practice

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Origin

From Middle English thunder (also thonder, þunre), from Old English þunor ('thunder'), from Proto-Germanic *þunraz and ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *(s)ten- ('to thunder'). Its relatives include German Donner, Dutch donder, Old Norse Þórr (the god Thor) and Latin tonō; compare English astound, astonish and stun.

Checked 1 Nov 2026 · 9 facts