Word.ws English Dictionary

cumulus

Syllables: cu·mu·lus/ˈkjuːmjʊləs/US/ˈkjumjələs/

cumulus noun: a heap or mound.

cumulus: a heap or mound
Image: Glg, CC BY-SA 2.0 de, via Wikimedia Commons

Noun

cumulus (plural cumuli)

  1. A heap or mound.
  2. A large white, puffy cloud that develops through convection.
    • [page 99] Cumulus. […] Convex or conical heaps, increasing upward from a horizontal base. […] [page 101] The cumulus of fair weather has a moderate elevation and extent, and a well defined rounded surface. Previous to rain it increases more rapidly, appears lower in the atmosphere, and with its...1803 July, Luke Howard, “XVIII. On the Modifications of Clouds, and on the Principles of Their Production, Suspension, and Destruction; being the Substance of an Essay Read before the Askesian...
    • In the sketch (which is taken about 75 Jovian days after that of the 2nd July) there is shown a dark copper-coloured streak along the southern margin of the south brown belt, butting on to a bluff-headed streak of cumulus cloud which may be the same remarkable bluff head noticed on July 2.1878 November 8, C. Todd, “Observations at the Adelaide Observatory”, in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, volume 39, number 1, page 18

cumulus meaning in Tamil, Kannada and Tagalog

cumulus in Tamil

திரண்முகில், திரள், மழைமேகம்

cumulus in Kannada

ದಟ್ಟಮೋಡ

cumulus in Tagalog

white, puffy cloud
buntuning alapaap

Forms of cumulus

pluralcumuli

Origin of cumulus

Learned borrowing from Latin cumulus. Doublet of comble. Sense 2 (“type of cloud”) was coined by the British chemist and amateur meteorologist Luke Howard (1772–1864): see the 1803 quotation.

Words formed from cumulus

Words that rhyme with cumulus

Questions about cumulus

What does cumulus mean?
Cumulus means a heap or mound.
What is cumulus in Tamil?
Cumulus in Tamil is திரண்முகில், திரள், மழைமேகம். See Cumulus meaning in Tamil.
What part of speech is cumulus?
Cumulus is a noun.
How do you pronounce cumulus?
Cumulus is pronounced /ˈkjuːmjʊləs/ (UK).
What is the plural of cumulus?
The plural of cumulus is cumuli.

Words near cumulus in the dictionary

  1. cumulophyric
  2. cumulose
  3. cumulostrati
  4. cumulostratus
  5. cumulous
  6. cumulus
  7. cumulus oophorus
  8. cumwad
  9. cumwads
  10. Cumwhinton
  11. Cumwhitton

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: cumulus (page history and authors); cumulus (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); cumulus (Kannada 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: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-cumulus.wav.

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