cumulus
/ˈkjumjələs/
Word Rarity
Rare
Frequency: 2.57 in modern English
11
Scrabble Score
7
Letters
3
Syllables
5
Unique Chars
Meaning
noun
A large white, puffy cloud that develops through convection.
Example Sentences
- "[page 99] Cumulus. […] Convex or conical heaps, increasing upward from a horizontal base. […] [page 101] The cumulus of fair weather has a moderate elevation and extent, and a well defined rounded surface. Previous to rain it increases more rapidly, appears lower in the atmosphere, and with its surface full of loose fleeces or protuberances."
- "In the sketch (which is taken about 75 Jovian days after that of the 2nd July) there is shown a dark copper-coloured streak along the southern margin of the south brown belt, butting on to a bluff-headed streak of cumulus cloud which may be the same remarkable bluff head noticed on July 2."
- "There were some new cumuli in the east, out above the water, and they began to take the late afternoon sun."
- "2007 September 1, "Who’s afraid of Google?: The world’s internet superpower faces testing times", in The Economist, The Economist Newspaper Ltd, ISSN 0013-0613, volume 384, number 8544, page 9, Ironically, there is something rather cloudlike about the multiple complaints surrounding Google. The issues are best parted into two cumuli: a set of “public” arguments about how to regulate Google; and a set of “private” ones for Google’s managers, to do with the strategy the firm needs to get through the coming storm."
Etymology
Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *ḱewh₁- Proto-Indo-European *ḱuh₁mósder.? Latin cumulusbor. English cumulus Learned borrowing from Latin cumulus. Doublet of comble. Sense 2 (“type of cloud”) was coined by the British chemist and amateur meteorologist Luke Howard (1772–1864): see the 1803 quotation.
Regional Pronunciation
- American English: /ˈkjumjələs/
- British English: /ˈkjuːmjʊləs/