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.

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈθʌndə/
• (General American) enPR: thŭn′dər, IPA^(key): /ˈθʌndɚ/

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• Rhymes: -ʌndə(ɹ)
• Hyphenation: thun‧der

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.
   • 1847, William H. Prescott, A History of the Conquest of Peru:

     The thunders of the Vatican could no longer strike into the heart of princes.

4. (obsolete) The discharge of electricity; a thunderbolt.
   • 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, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act II, scene i]:

     The revenging gods / 'Gainst parricides did all their thunders bend.

5. (Can we verify⁽⁺⁾ this sense?) (figuratively) The spotlight.

   Shortly after I announced my pregnancy, he stole my thunder with his news of landing his dream job.

6. (literature) Synonym of thunder word
   • 1996, William York Tindall, A Reader's Guide to Finnegans Wake, page 31:

     Adam's fall and Vico's thunder are embodied in a word of a hundred letters, the first of ten thunders in the Wake.

• roll, clap, peal are some of the words used to count thunder e.g. A series of rolls/claps/peals of thunder were heard

• → Alemannic German: Thönder
• → Japanese: サンダー (sandā)
• → Tagalog: tanders
• → Tok Pisin: tanda

• lightning

thunder (third-person singular simple present thunders, present participle thundering, simple past and past participle thundered)

1. (impersonal) To produce thunder; to sound, rattle, or roar, as a discharge of atmospheric electricity.

   It thundered continuously.

2. (intransitive) To make a noise like thunder.

   The train thundered along the tracks.

3. (ergative) To (make something) move very fast (with loud noise).
   • 1983, “Forbidden Colours”, in David Sylvian (lyrics), Ryuichi Sakamoto (music), Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence, performed by David Sylvian:

     Senseless years thunder by / Millions are willing to give their lives for you / Does nothing live on?

4. (intransitive, transitive) To say (something) with a loud, threatening voice.

   "Get back to work at once!", he thundered.

5. To produce something with incredible power.
   • 2011 January 19, Jonathan Stevenson, “Leeds 1 - 3 Arsenal”, in BBC‎:

     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.

• (to say something with a loud, threatening voice): thunderer
• thundering herd problem

• thundering

thunder

1. Alternative form of thonder