Word Pronunciation & Dictionary

heat lightning

Word Rarity Uncommon

Frequency: 4.13 in modern English

Syllables: heat -light-ning
IPA

21

Scrabble Score

13

Letters

3

Syllables

8

Unique Chars

Meaning

noun

Lightning and/or thunder which the observer attributes to heat rather than a storm (e.g. because the storm/rain is too distant to be seen, or because there is no rain, as with dry lightning).

Uncountable

noun

Lightning and/or thunder which the observer attributes to heat rather than a storm (e.g. because the storm/rain is too distant to be seen, or because there is no rain, as with dry lightning).

Uncountable

noun

Lightning and/or thunder which the observer attributes to heat rather than a storm (e.g. because the storm/rain is too distant to be seen, or because there is no rain, as with dry lightning).

Uncountable

Example Sentences

"Joel Brinkley, a schoolteacher, who was a child in the 1950s, recalled a similar feeling during this era: "It seems surreal now. Every summer, when I heard heat lightning over the city and the sky would light up, I was convinced it was all over. My whole childhood was built on the notion that the Soviets were the real threat.""
"The beginning of a watery diarrheal event is said to be marked by a great deal of noise, characterized as […] rumbling (tzilelet 'rumbling sound of heat lightning in the rainy season'), […]"
"The typical range at which thunder can be heard is around 24 km [...] Often, people mistakenly call lightning whose thunder is too far away to be heard "heat lightning," suggesting that the lightning somehow owes its existence merely to the heat of the day and not to a thunderstorm. Nonsense. "Heat lightning" is simply distant lightning whose thunder cannot be heard."
"THE RAIN FINALLY CAME FROM THE DARK GREY SKIES, SOFT AND TEMPTING AT FIRST, WITH THE SOUND OF HEAT LIGHTNING HOVERING OVER THE SKYSCRAPERS! [image is of a city being rained on, no lightning visible]"
"Our windows were open, and inside the wind and rumble of heat lightning, I could hear Albert's horses nickering in the darkness."

Etymology

So called because it is common on hot summer nights and is sometimes popularly thought to be caused by heat rather storms.

Usage

Uncountable

Frequently Paired Words

sheet lightning

Questions

What does heat lightning mean?: Lightning and/or thunder which the observer attributes to heat rather than a storm (e.g. because the storm/rain is too distant to be seen, or because there is no rain, as with dry lightning).
Where does heat lightning come from?: So called because it is common on hot summer nights and is sometimes popularly thought to be caused by heat rather storms.

How to pronounce heat lightning

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