tornado
UK/tɔː(ɹ)ˈneɪ.dəʊ//tɔɹˈneɪ.doʊ/
tornado noun: a violent wind in the form of a mobile, rapidly rotating, funnel cloud that has contacted the ground.
Noun
tornado (plural tornadoes or tornados)
- A violent wind in the form of a mobile, rapidly rotating, funnel cloud that has contacted the ground.
- An extreme version of vorticity is a vortex. The vortex is a spinning, cyclonic mass of fluid, which can be observed in the rotation of water going down a drain, as well as in smoke rings, tornados and hurricanes.2013 March, Frank Fish, George Lauder, “Not Just Going with the Flow”, in American Scientist, volume 101, number 2, archived from the original on 01 May 2013, page 114
- Some of the same areas hit by tornadoes just a little over a week ago are expecting severe storms again Monday afternoon and evening. […] A multiday severe weather outbreak is possible Monday through Wednesday, increasing the already-above average tornado count even higher.2024 May 5, Allison Chinchar, “Multiday severe weather threat could continue tornado streak this week”, in CNN, archived from the original on 15 May 2024
- Synonyms:
- twister, whirlstorm
Verb
tornado (third-person singular simple present tornados, present participle tornadoing, simple past and past participle tornadoed)
- To sweep through something violently.
- And so on Friday nights, James Torin tornadoed through six beers, a carton of cigarettes, a coffee table littered with lottery tickets, and unrequited dreams.2012, Robin Nicole, For the Sake of Appearances
- They come every night,
those cavernous trains, tornadoing
the frozen house,
a madness feeling for the door.2015, James Richardson, Reservations: Poems, page 5
tornado meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Urdu and Bengali
tornado in Hindi
- violent windstorm
- बवंडर bavaṇḍar
tornado in Tamil
- violent windstorm
- சூறாவளி cūṟāvaḷi
tornado in Urdu
- tornado
- بونڈر bavanḍar
tornado in Bengali
- টর্নেডো, ঘূর্ণিঝড়
More languagesFewer languages
- tornado in Telugu
- గాలివాన gālivāna, గాలికసురు gālikasuru, ప్రచండమారుతము pracaṇḍamārutamu
- tornado in Malayalam
- ചുഴലിക്കാറ്റ് cuḻalikkāṟṟŭ, കൊടുങ്കാറ്റ് koṭuṅkāṟṟŭ
- tornado in Kannada
- ತುಫಾನು tuphānu, ಬಿರುಗಾಳಿ birugāḷi, ಸುಂಟರಗಾಳಿ suṇṭaragāḷi
- tornado in Punjabi
- ਬਵੰਡਰ bavaṇḍar
- tornado in Sanskrit
- चक्रवातः cakravātaḥ
- tornado in Tagalog
- buhawi, ipo-ipo
- tornado in Arabic
- إِعْصَار ʔiʕṣār
- tornado in Malay
- puting beliung
- tornado in Indonesian
- tornado
- tornado in Persian
- گردباد gerdbâd
- tornado in Thai
- ทอร์นาโด tɔɔ-naa-doo
- tornado in Vietnamese
- vòi rồng, lốc xoáy
- tornado in Myanmar
- လေဆင်နှာမောင်း lehcanghnamaung:
Examples of tornado in a sentence
- The tornado lingered, tearing through town, leaving nothing upright.
- The tornado is finally losing its punch.
- The roof was blown off by the tornado.
Synonyms of tornado
Forms of tornado
| Noun | |
|---|---|
| plural | tornadoes |
| plural | tornados |
| Verb | |
| third-person singular present | tornados |
| present participle | tornadoing |
| past participle | tornadoed |
| past | tornadoed |
Origin of tornado
From earlier English ternado, attested since the 1550s as a nautical term for a windy thunderstorm. From Spanish tronada (“thunderstorm”), from tronar (“to thunder”), from Latin tonō (“to thunder”), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)tenh₂- (“to thunder”). The o and r were reversed in English (metathesis) under influence of Spanish tornar (“to twist, to turn”), from Latin tornō (“to turn”).
Words formed from tornado
- firenado
- gustnado
- horse tornado
- -nado
- pornado
- rope tornado
- snownado
- stovepipe tornado
- supertornado
- tornadic
- Tornado Alley
- tornado brain
- tornadocane
- tornado chaser
- tornado drill
- tornadoesque
- tornado fry
- tornado hunter
- tornado juice
- tornado lamp
- tornadolike
- tornado omelette
- tornado omurice
- tornado outbreak
- tornado potato
- tornadoproof
- tornado shelter
- tornado siren
- tornado warning
- tornado watch
- volnado
- wedge tornado
Phrases with tornado
Questions about tornado
- What does tornado mean?
- Tornado means a violent wind in the form of a mobile, rapidly rotating, funnel cloud that has contacted the ground.
- What is tornado in Hindi?
- Tornado in Hindi is बवंडर (bavaṇḍar). See Tornado meaning in Hindi.
- What part of speech is tornado?
- Tornado can be a noun or a verb.
- How do you pronounce tornado?
- Tornado is pronounced /tɔː(ɹ)ˈneɪ.dəʊ/ (UK).
- What is the plural of tornado?
- The plural of tornado is tornadoes.
Words near tornado in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: tornado (page history and authors); بونڈر (Urdu) (page history and authors); tornado (Bengali 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-tornado.ogg.
Cite this entry: “tornado.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/tornado. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.