thunder
Syllables: thun·der/ˈfʌndə/UK/ˈθʌndə/
thunder noun: the loud rumbling, cracking, or crashing sound caused by expansion of rapidly heated air around a lightning bolt.
Noun
thunder (countable and uncountable, plural thunders)
- The loud rumbling, cracking, or crashing sound caused by expansion of rapidly heated air around a lightning bolt.
- Thunder is preceded by lightning.
- Thunder cracked overhead.
- A deep, rumbling noise resembling thunder.
- Off in the distance, he heard the thunder of hoofbeats, signalling a stampede.
- An alarming or startling threat or denunciation.
- The thunders of the Vatican could no longer strike into the heart of princes.1847, William H. Prescott, A History of the Conquest of Peru
- The discharge of electricity; a thunderbolt.
- The revenging gods / 'Gainst parricides did all their thunders bend.c. 1603–1606, William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of King Lear”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount...
- Synonym of thunder word.
- Adam's fall and Vico's thunder are embodied in a word of a hundred letters, the first of ten thunders in the Wake.1996, William York Tindall, A Reader's Guide to Finnegans Wake, page 31
- Synonyms:
- thunder word
Verb
thunder (third-person singular simple present thunders, present participle thundering, simple past and past participle thundered)
- To produce thunder; to sound, rattle, or roar, as a discharge of atmospheric electricity.
- It thundered continuously.
- To make a noise like thunder.
- The train thundered along the tracks.
- The farmer whose land the Pratincole had chosen to frequent had such an adversion to birders that he had been thundering up and down all day in a high-powered muck-spreader, splattering them with cow dung!1983, Bill Oddie, Gone Birding, London: Methuen, page 59
- To (make something) move very fast (with loud noise).
- Senseless years thunder by / Millions are willing to give their lives for you / Does nothing live on?1983, “Forbidden Colours”, in David Sylvian (lyrics), Ryuichi Sakamoto (music), Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence, performed by David Sylvian
- To say (something) with a loud, threatening voice.
- "Get back to work at once!", he thundered.
- To produce something with incredible power.
- Just as it appeared Arsenal had taken the sting out of the tie, Johnson produced a moment of outrageous quality, thundering a bullet of a left foot shot out of the blue and into the top left-hand corner of Wojciech Szczesny's net with the Pole grasping at thin air.2011 January 19, Jonathan Stevenson, “Leeds 1 - 3 Arsenal”, in BBC Sport, archived from the original on 19 Mar 2011
Proper noun capitalized: Thunder
Thunder
thunder meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu
thunder in Hindi
- sound caused by lightning
- गरज garaj, गड़गड़ाहट gaṛagṛāhaṭ, राद rād, गर्जन garjan, मेघनाद meghnād
- sound resembling thunder
- गर्जन garjan
- to make a noise like thunder
- कड़कना kaṛaknā, गरजना garajnā
thunder in Tamil
- sound caused by lightning
- இடி iṭi
thunder in Marathi
- sound caused by lightning
- गर्जना garjanā, डरकाळी ḍarkāḷī, गडगडाट gaḍagḍāṭ
thunder in Urdu
- sound caused by lightning
- گَرَج garaj, گَڑْگَڑاہَٹ gaṛgaṛāhaṭ, رَعْد ra'd
More languagesFewer languages
- thunder in Bengali
- বজ্রধ্বনি bojroddhoni
- thunder in Telugu
- ఉరుము urumu
- thunder in Malayalam
- ഇടി iṭi
- thunder in Kannada
- ಗುಡುಗು, ಮೊಳಗು, ಗುಡುಗಾಟ, ಗುಡಿಗು
- thunder in Punjabi
- ਗਰਜਣਾ garjaṇā
- thunder in Gujarati
- ગાજ gāj
- thunder in Odia
- ଗର୍ଜନ garjana
- thunder in Sanskrit
- गर्जन garjana, स्तनति stanati
- thunder in Sinhala
- විදුලි කෙටීම widuli keṭīma
- thunder in Assamese
- ঢেৰেকনি dherekoni, ঢেৰেক dherek
- thunder in Tagalog
- kulog
- thunder in Arabic
- رَعْد raʕd, رعد raʕd, رَعَدَ raʕada
- thunder in Malay
- guruh, guntur
- thunder in Indonesian
- guntur, guruh
- thunder in Persian
- تُنْدَر tondar, تُنْدُر tondor, رَعْد ra'd
- thunder in Thai
- ฟ้าร้อง fáa-rɔ́ɔng, สายฟ้าฟาด săaifáa fâat
- thunder in Vietnamese
- sấm
- thunder in Myanmar
- မိုးကြိုး mui:krui:
- Dzongkha
- འབྲུག་སྐད 'brug skad
Examples of thunder in a sentence
- With each clap of thunder echoing from one high building to another the noise was terrific.1953 July, Allen Rowley, “First Impressions of American Railways”, in Railway Magazine, page 493:
- His words landed like a bomb, and my ears thundered with noise.2019, Abby Chava Stein, Becoming Eve, Seal Press, page 46:
Synonyms of thunder
Forms of thunder
| Noun | |
|---|---|
| plural | thunders |
| Verb | |
| third-person singular present | thunders |
| present participle | thundering |
| past participle | thundered |
| past | thundered |
| second-person singular present (archaic) | thunderest |
| second-person singular past (archaic) | thunderedst |
| third-person singular present (archaic) | thundereth |
Origin of thunder
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 (tondar), Latin tonō, detonō, Ancient Greek στένω (sténō), στενάζω (stenázō), στόνος (stónos), Στέντωρ (Sténtōr), Irish torann, Welsh taran, Gaulish Taranis. Doublet of donner, Thunor, and Thor.
From Middle English thundren, from Old English þunrian (“to thunder”), from Proto-West Germanic *þunrōn, from Proto-Germanic *þunrōną (“to thunder”).
Words formed from thunder
- thunderer
- black as thunder
- black thunder
- blood and thunder
- by thunder
- castle thunder
- Chad Thundercock
- face like thunder
- heat thunder
- in thunder
- outthunder
- rethunder
- steal someone's thunder
- thunder and lightning
- thunderation
- thunder beast
- thunderbird
- thunderblast
- thunderbolt
- thunderboomer
- thunderbox
- thunderbug
- thunderburst
- thunderclap
- thundercloud
- thunder cloud
- thundercrack
- thundercrash
- thunder cross
- thundercunt
- Thunderdome
- thunder-drum
- thunderdunk
- thunderegg
- thunder egg
- thunder fever
- thunder fire
- thunderfish
- thunderflash
- thunderfly
- thunderful
- thunder god
- thunder god vine
- thundergust
- thunderhead
- thunderless
- thunderlight
- thunderlike
- thunder lizard
- thunder moon
- thunder mug
- thundermug
- thunderous
- thunderpeal
- thunder-plant
- thunder-plump
- thunder pot
- thunderproof
- thunder rod
- thunder run
Phrases with thunder
- Thunder Bay
- thunder box
- thunder clap
- thunder eggs
- thunder gods
- thunder mugs
- thunder pots
- thunder rods
- thunder runs
- thunder tube
- thunder word
- thunder boxes
29 more phrasesFewer phrases
- thunder claps
- thunder fired
- thunder fires
- thunder moons
- thunder sheet
- thunder sleet
- thunder snake
- thunder stick
- thunder tubes
- thunder words
- thunder beasts
- thunder clouds
- thunder firing
- thunder sheets
- thunder snakes
- thunder sticks
- thunder thighs
- thunder crosses
- thunder lizards
- thunder tea rice
- thunder god vines
- faces like thunder
- steals one's thunder
- stolen one's thunder
- Thunder Bay District
- stole someone's thunder
- steals someone's thunder
- stolen someone's thunder
- stealing someone's thunder
Words that rhyme with thunder
- under
- wonder
- blunder
- plunder
- asunder
- chunder
- sunder
- dunder
- funder
- gazunder
- land under
- nine days' wonder
2 more rhymesFewer rhymes
Questions about thunder
- What does thunder mean?
- Thunder means the loud rumbling, cracking, or crashing sound caused by expansion of rapidly heated air around a lightning bolt.
- What is thunder in Hindi?
- Thunder in Hindi is गरज (garaj), गड़गड़ाहट (gaṛagṛāhaṭ), राद (rād). See Thunder meaning in Hindi.
- How do you use thunder in a sentence?
- With each clap of thunder echoing from one high building to another the noise was terrific.
- What part of speech is thunder?
- Thunder can be a noun, a verb or a proper noun.
- How do you pronounce thunder?
- Thunder is pronounced /ˈθʌndə/ (UK).
- What is the plural of thunder?
- The plural of thunder is thunders.
Words near thunder in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: thunder (page history and authors); Thunder (page history and authors); thunder (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors); ਗਰਜਣਾ (Punjabi) (page history and authors); ગાજ (Gujarati) (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-thunder.ogg.
Cite this entry: “thunder.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/thunder. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.