Tornado
WordNet
noun
(1) A purified and potent form of cocaine that is smoked rather than snorted
(2) A localized and violently destructive windstorm occurring over land characterized by a funnel-shaped cloud extending toward the ground
WiktionaryText
Etymology 1
From Spanish tronada (thunderstorm) < tronar (to thunder) < Latin tonare (to thunder) < Proto-Indo-European *(s)tene- (to thunder). The 'o' and 'r' were reversed in English (metathesis) under influence of Spanish tornar (to twist, to turn) < Latin tornare (to turn).
Noun
- A violently rotating column of air, pendant from a cumulonimbus cloud, and nearly always observable as a funnel cloud or tuba. On a local scale, it is the most destructive of all atmospheric phenomena. Its vortex, meters in diameter, rotates counterclockwise in the northern hemisphere and clockwise in the southern hemisphere with wind speeds of 100 to more than 300 miles per hour (161 to 483 kmph). Its general direction of travel is governed by the motion of its parent cloud.
See also
- cyclone
- dust devil
- hurricane
- tsunami
- typhoon
- waterspout
- willy willy