Word.ws English Dictionary

cloudburst

Syllables: cloud·burstUK/ˈklaʊdˌbɜːst/US/ˈklaʊdˌbɝst/

cloudburst noun: a sudden heavy rainstorm.

Noun

cloudburst (plural cloudbursts)

  1. A sudden heavy rainstorm.
    • [B]ut the sound . . . expressed an utter abandonment to grief; not the cloud-burst of some passing emotion, but the slow down-pour of a whole heaven of sorrow.1899, Edith Wharton, “A Cup of Cold Water”, in The Greater Inclination
    • A cloudburst in the China Creek district followed by continued heavy rains was responsible for the increased water.1908, Stewart Edward White, chapter 38, in The Riverman
  2. (figuratively) A sudden downfall or shortcoming.
    • "[...] [T]his great storm of a beating would rain down on our backs?"
      "Yours, at least, Sancho," replied Don Quixote, "must be accustomed to such cloudbursts; but mine, brought up on cambric and fine Dutch linen, of course will feel more deeply the pain of this misfortune.Part 1 published in 1605, Part 2 in 1615, translated in 2003, Miguel de Cervantes and translated by Edith Grossman, Don Quixote, page 106

cloudburst meaning in Tamil, Marathi, Malayalam and Malay

cloudburst in Tamil

இடிமின்னல் மழை

cloudburst in Marathi

sudden heavy rainstorm
ढगफुटी ḍhagphuṭī

cloudburst in Malayalam

sudden heavy rainstorm
മേഘസ്ഫോടനം mēghasphōṭanaṁ

cloudburst in Malay

sudden heavy rainstorm
hujan curah
More languagesFewer languages
cloudburst in Persian
رگبار پراکنده ragbâr-e parâkande, شغال باران šoġâl-bârân

Examples of cloudburst in a sentence

  • In Uniontown, Pa., John Walchesky & family rushed from their house when lightning set it afire, rushed in again when a cloudburst put out the blaze.1936 August 17, “Miscellany”, in Time, retrieved 20 May 2014:
  • [H]e walked across the lawn, wet from a fleeting late-afternoon cloudburst, the first rain in a month.2007 Feb. 25, Norman Howard, "Devotion, chapter 1" (book excerpt), New York Times (retrieved 20 May 2014)

Synonyms of cloudburst

Forms of cloudburst

pluralcloudbursts
alternative formcloud-burst

Origin of cloudburst

From cloud + burst.

Questions about cloudburst

What does cloudburst mean?
Cloudburst means a sudden heavy rainstorm.
What is cloudburst in Tamil?
Cloudburst in Tamil is இடிமின்னல் மழை. See Cloudburst meaning in Tamil.
How do you use cloudburst in a sentence?
In Uniontown, Pa., John Walchesky & family rushed from their house when lightning set it afire, rushed in again when a cloudburst put out the blaze.
What part of speech is cloudburst?
Cloudburst is a noun.
How do you pronounce cloudburst?
Cloudburst is pronounced /ˈklaʊdˌbɝst/ (US).
What is the plural of cloudburst?
The plural of cloudburst is cloudbursts.

Words near cloudburst in the dictionary

  1. cloudbase
  2. cloudbases
  3. cloudberries
  4. cloudberry
  5. cloudborne
  6. cloudburst
  7. cloudbursts
  8. cloudbust
  9. cloudbuster
  10. cloudbusters
  11. cloudbusting

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: cloudburst (page history and authors); cloudburst (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-au-cloudburst.ogg.

Cite this entry: “cloudburst.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/cloudburst. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.