Word.ws English Dictionary

thunderbolt

/ˈθʌndə(ɹ)ˌboʊlt/

thunderbolt noun: a flash of lightning accompanied by a crash of thunder.

Noun

thunderbolt (plural thunderbolts)

  1. A flash of lightning accompanied by a crash of thunder.
    • Our quiuering Lances ſhaking in the aire, / And bullets like Ioues dreadfull Thunderbolts, / Enrolde in flames and fiery ſmoldering miſtes, / Shall threat the Gods more than Cyclopian warres, […]c. 1587–1588 (date written), [Christopher Marlowe], Tamburlaine the Great. […] The First Part […], 2nd edition, part 1, London: […] [R. Robinson for] Richard Iones, […], published 1592, →OCLC...
    • And the sword that had visited Earth from so far away smote like the falling of thunderbolts [...] and the runes in Alveric’s far-travelled sword exulted, and roared at the elf-knight; until in the dark of the wood, amongst branches severed from disenchanted trees, with a blow like that of a...1924, Lord Dunsany, chapter III, in The King of Elfland's Daughter, New York: G.P. Puttnam's Sons, page 30
  2. (figuratively) An event that is terrible, horrific or unexpected.
    • News of the actress’s death came as a thunderbolt to her fans.
    • the Scipios' worth, those thunderbolts of war1697, Virgil, “(please specify the book number)”, in John Dryden, transl., The Works of Virgil: Containing His Pastorals, Georgics, and Æneis. […], London: […] Jacob Tonson, […], →OCLC
  3. Vehement threatening or censure; especially, ecclesiastical denunciation; fulmination.
    • a thunder-bolt of warre Striking all Nations1627, G[eorge] H[akewill], An Apologie of the Power and Prouidence of God in the Gouernment of the World. […], Oxford, Oxfordshire: […] Iohn Lichfield and William Turner, […], →OCLC
  4. A very powerful shot.
    • Substitute Niko Kranjcar's injury-time thunderbolt gave Tottenham a dramatic win over Bolton.2011 February 5, Michael Kevin Darling, “Tottenham 2 - 1 Bolton”, in BBC
  5. A belemnite, or thunderstone.
  6. A charge in the form of two joined bundles with four rays of lightning emerging from them, resembling the thunderbolt of Jupiter.
  7. A daring or irresistible hero.

Verb

thunderbolt (third-person singular simple present thunderbolts, present participle thunderbolting, simple past and past participle thunderbolted)

  1. (rare, transitive) To strike with a thunderbolt.
  2. (rare) To move swiftly and violently.

Proper noun capitalized: Thunderbolt

Thunderbolt

  1. (trademark) A computer interface standard for connecting devices, combining PCI Express, DisplayPort and DC power in one connector.

thunderbolt meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Urdu and Bengali

thunderbolt in Hindi

flash of lightning accompanied by thunder
वज्रपात vajrapāt

thunderbolt in Tamil

இடியேறு

thunderbolt in Urdu

بجلی کا کڑکا

thunderbolt in Bengali

thunderbolt
অশনি ośoni
More languagesFewer languages
thunderbolt in Telugu
పిడుగుపాటు piḍugupāṭu, పిడుగు piḍugu
thunderbolt in Malayalam
മിന്നൽപ്പിണർ minnalppiṇaṟ, ദംഭോളി dambhōḷi, അശനി aśani, ഇടിവാൾ iṭivāḷ
thunderbolt in Kannada
ಸಿಡಿಲ್, ಸಿಡಿಲು, ವಜ್ರಾಘಾತ, ಪಿಡುಗು
thunderbolt in Punjabi
ਥੰਡਰਬੋਲਟ, ਥੰਡਲਬੋਲਟ
thunderbolt in Gujarati
થંડરબોલ્ટ, થંડરબોલ્ટિંગ, થંડરબોલ્ટીંગ
thunderbolt in Odia
ଥଣ୍ଡାରବୋଲ୍ଟ
thunderbolt in Sanskrit
अशनि aśani, कुलिश kuliśa, वज्र vajra
thunderbolt in Nepali
थन्डरबोल्ट, थन्डर्बोल्ट, थण्डरबोल्ट
thunderbolt in Arabic
صَاعِقَة ṣāʕiqa
thunderbolt in Indonesian
petir
thunderbolt in Persian
رعد و برق ra'd-o-barq, صاعقه sâ'eqe, آذرخش âzaraxš
thunderbolt in Thai
สายฟ้า sǎai-fáa

Examples of thunderbolt in a sentence

  • Dyeus was the shining God of Sky, the giver of rain, the vanquisher of enemies with thunderbolts.
  • Yet fiercer the storm Shocks onward terrific — A thunderbolt falls! — Oaks crash down heart-shatter'd!
  • He humored them by taking one small sip that sent thunderbolts down his neck, and he becan coughing like a "lunger".

All 11 example sentences with thunderbolt

Forms of thunderbolt

Noun
pluralthunderbolts
Verb
third-person singular presentthunderbolts
present participlethunderbolting
past participlethunderbolted
pastthunderbolted

Plural of thunderbolt: thunderbolts

Origin of thunderbolt

From thunder + bolt.

By analogy with the speed and power of a thunderbolt.

Words formed from thunderbolt

Phrases with thunderbolt

Questions about thunderbolt

What does thunderbolt mean?
Thunderbolt means a flash of lightning accompanied by a crash of thunder.
What is thunderbolt in Hindi?
Thunderbolt in Hindi is वज्रपात (vajrapāt). See Thunderbolt meaning in Hindi.
What part of speech is thunderbolt?
Thunderbolt can be a noun, a verb or a proper noun.
How do you pronounce thunderbolt?
Thunderbolt is pronounced /ˈθʌndə(ɹ)ˌboʊlt/.
What is the plural of thunderbolt?
The plural of thunderbolt is thunderbolts.

Words near thunderbolt in the dictionary

  1. thunderation
  2. thunderbird
  3. thunderbirds
  4. thunderblast
  5. thunderblasts
  6. thunderbolt
  7. thunderbolt beetle
  8. thunderbolt beetles
  9. Thunderbolt chassis
  10. thunderbolted
  11. thunderbolting

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: thunderbolt (page history and authors); Thunderbolt (page history and authors); thunderbolt (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); thunderbolt (Urdu Wiktionary) (page history and authors); অশনি (Bengali) (page history and authors); thunderbolt (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors); thunderbolt (Punjabi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); thunderbolt (Gujarati, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); thunderbolt (Odia, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); thunderbolt (Nepali, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license). 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.

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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vininn126-thunderbolt.wav.

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