thunders

Noun

thunder (countable and uncountable, plural thunders)

1. The loud rumbling, cracking, or crashing sound caused by expansion of rapidly heated air around a lightning bolt.
   • Thunder is preceded by lightning.
2. A deep, rumbling noise resembling thunder.
   • Off in the distance, he heard the thunder of hoofbeats, signalling a stampede.
3. 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
4. (obsolete) 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...
5. 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

See all 11 meanings of thunder