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volcanic winter

Syllables: vol·can·icUK/vɒlˌkænɪk ˈwɪntə//vɔlˌkænɪk ˈwɪntəɹ/

volcanic winter noun: a reduction in global temperatures caused by volcanic ash and droplets of sulfuric acid obscuring the Sun and raising Earth's albedo (increasing the reflection of solar radiation) after a large, particularly explosive volcanic eruption.

volcanic winter: a reduction in global temperatures caused by volcanic ash and droplets of sulfuric acid obscuring...
Image: Krakatoa Committee of the Royal Society, G. J. Symons, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Noun

volcanic winter (plural volcanic winters)

  1. A reduction in global temperatures caused by volcanic ash and droplets of sulfuric acid obscuring the Sun and raising Earth's albedo (increasing the reflection of solar radiation) after a large, particularly explosive volcanic eruption.
    • People who lived through the Year Without a Summer, 1816, had no way to know at the time that they were living through a volcanic winter; some thought that the end times were beginning.

volcanic winter meaning in Arabic, Indonesian, Persian and Thai

volcanic winter in Arabic

reduction in global temperatures after a large, particularly explosive volcanic eruption
شتاء بركاني

volcanic winter in Indonesian

reduction in global temperatures after a large, particularly explosive volcanic eruption
musim dingin vulkanik

volcanic winter in Persian

reduction in global temperatures after a large, particularly explosive volcanic eruption
زمستان آتشفشانی

volcanic winter in Thai

reduction in global temperatures after a large, particularly explosive volcanic eruption
ฤดูหนาวจากภูเขาไฟ
More languagesFewer languages
volcanic winter in Vietnamese
mùa đông núi lửa

Forms of volcanic winter

pluralvolcanic winters

Origin of volcanic winter

From volcanic + winter.

Words that rhyme with volcanic winter

Questions about volcanic winter

What does volcanic winter mean?
Volcanic winter means a reduction in global temperatures caused by volcanic ash and droplets of sulfuric acid obscuring the Sun and raising Earth's albedo (increasing the reflection of solar radiation) after a large, particularly explosive volcanic eruption.
What is volcanic winter in Arabic?
Volcanic winter in Arabic is شتاء بركاني. See Volcanic winter meaning in Arabic.
What part of speech is volcanic winter?
Volcanic winter is a noun.
How do you pronounce volcanic winter?
Volcanic winter is pronounced /vɒlˌkænɪk ˈwɪntə/ (UK).
What is the plural of volcanic winter?
The plural of volcanic winter is volcanic winters.

Words near volcanic winter in the dictionary

  1. volcanic pipes
  2. volcanic sulfur
  3. volcanic sulphur
  4. volcanic wind
  5. volcanic winds
  6. volcanic winter
  7. volcanic winters
  8. volcanical
  9. volcanically
  10. volcanicities
  11. volcanicity

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: volcanic winter (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-volcanic winter.oga.

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