Word.ws English Dictionary

tempest

Syllables: tem·pest/ˈtɛm.pəst/

tempest noun: a storm, especially one with severe winds.

Noun

tempest (plural tempests)

  1. A storm, especially one with severe winds.
    • For a Tempeſt. Take Eurus, Zephyr, Auſter and Boreas, and caſt them together in one Verſe. Add to theſe of Rain, Lightning, and of Thunder (the loudeſt you can) quantum ſufficit. Mix your Clouds and Billows well together till they foam, and thicken your Deſcription here and there with a Quickſand....1714 June 10, [Alexander Pope], The Guardian, volume I, number 78, London: Printed for J[acob] Tonson, at Shakespear's-Head over-against Catherine-street in the Strand, page 332
    • BEAT on, proud billows; Boreas blow; / Swell, curled waves, high as Jove's roof; / Your incivility doth ſhow, / That innocence is tempeſt proof; / Though ſurly Nereus frown, my thoughts are calm; / Then ſtrike, Affliction, for thy wounds are balm. [Attributed to Roger L'Estrange (1616–1704).]1781, [Mostyn John Armstrong], History and Antiquities of the County of Norfolk. Volume IX. Containing the Hundreds of Smithdon, Taverham, Tunstead, Walsham, and Wayland, volume IX, Norwich: Printed...
  2. Any violent tumult or commotion.
    • Comforted with these reflections, the tempest of his soul subsided1751, [Tobias] Smollett, The Adventures of Peregrine Pickle […], volume (please specify |volume=I to IV), London: Harrison and Co., […], →OCLC
    • They awaited the word "forward"—awaited, too, with beating hearts and set teeth the gusts of lead and iron that were to smite them at their first movement in obedience to that word. The word was not given; the tempest did not break out.1914, Ambrose Bierce, One Officer, One Man
  3. (obsolete) A fashionable social gathering; a drum.

Verb

tempest (third-person singular simple present tempests, present participle tempesting, simple past and past participle tempested)

  1. (intransitive, rare) To storm.
  2. (poetic, transitive) To disturb, as by a tempest.
    • . . . the seal
      And bended dolphins play; part huge of bulk,
      Wallowing unwieldy, enormous in their gait,
      Tempest the ocean.1667, John Milton, “Book VII”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […]; [a]nd by Robert Boulter […]; [a]nd Matthias Walker, […], →OCLC; republished...
    • Oh! dark lowered the clouds on that horrible eve,
      And the moon dimly gleamed through the tempested air.1811, Percy Bysshe Shelley, “The Drowned Lover,”, in Poems from St. Irvyne

Proper noun capitalized: Tempest

Tempest (plural Tempests)

  1. A surname transferred from the nickname.

tempest meaning in Hindi, Urdu, Bengali and Malayalam

tempest in Hindi

storm
आँधी āndhī

tempest in Urdu

ہیجان, طوفان

tempest in Bengali

ঝড়, প্রচণ্ড বাতাস

tempest in Malayalam

കൊടുങ്കാറ്റ്, ക്ഷോഭം, സംക്ഷോഭാവസ്ഥ
More languagesFewer languages
tempest in Kannada
ಚಂಡಮಾರುತ, ಬಿರುಗಾಳಿ, ಸುಂಟರಗಾಳಿ, ಬಿರುಗಾಳಿ ಮಳೆ
tempest in Thai
พายุ paa-yú

Examples of tempest in a sentence

  • Brew your Tempeſt well in your Head, before you ſet it a blowing.1714 June 10, [Alexander Pope], The Guardian, volume I, number 78, London: Printed for J[acob] Tonson, at Shakespear's-Head over-against...
  • As every sailor knows, a spicy gale in the tropic latitudes of the Pacific is far different from a tempest in the howling North Atlantic.1847, Herman Melville, chapter 16, in Omoo: A Narrative of Adventures in the South Seas:

Forms of tempest

Noun
pluraltempests
Verb
third-person singular presenttempests
present participletempesting
past participletempested
pasttempested
Proper noun
pluralTempests

Plural of tempest: tempests

Origin of tempest

From Old French tempeste (French tempête), from Latin tempestas (“storm”), from tempus (“time, weather”). Displaced native Old English hrīþ.

From tempest, a nickname for someone with a blustery temperament.

Words formed from tempest

Questions about tempest

What does tempest mean?
Tempest means a storm, especially one with severe winds.
What is tempest in Hindi?
Tempest in Hindi is आँधी (āndhī). See Tempest meaning in Hindi.
How do you use tempest in a sentence?
Brew your Tempeſt well in your Head, before you ſet it a blowing.
What part of speech is tempest?
Tempest can be a noun, a verb or a proper noun.
How do you pronounce tempest?
Tempest is pronounced /ˈtɛm.pəst/.
What is the plural of tempest?
The plural of tempest is tempests.

Words near tempest in the dictionary

  1. temperospatial
  2. tempers
  3. tempersome
  4. temperture
  5. tempes
  6. tempest
  7. tempest in a tea-kettle
  8. tempest in a teacup
  9. tempest in a teapot
  10. tempest-tossed
  11. tempest-tost

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: tempest (page history and authors); Tempest (page history and authors); tempest (Urdu Wiktionary) (page history and authors); tempest (Bengali Wiktionary) (page history and authors); tempest (Malayalam Wiktionary) (page history and authors); tempest (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: En-us-tempest male.ogg.

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