tempestuous

adjective

tem·​pes·​tu·​ous tem-ˈpes-chə-wəs How to pronounce tempestuous (audio)
-ˈpesh-
: of, relating to, or resembling a tempest : turbulent, stormy
tempestuous weather
a tempestuous relationship
tempestuously adverb
tempestuousness noun

Did you know?

Time is sometimes marked in seasons, and seasons are associated with the weather. This explains how tempestās—a Latin word for "time," "season," and "weather"—gave rise to tempestuous, an English adjective for things turbulent and stormy.

Examples of tempestuous in a Sentence

order was restored to the court after the judge put a stop to the defendant's tempestuous outburst in terms of social change, the 1960s are generally considered the most tempestuous decade in recent American history
Recent Examples on the Web Each one was found after washing up on shore, broken off an actual ship destroyed by storms and the tempestuous sea. Lois Alter Mark, Forbes, 18 Oct. 2024 Her thorny resilience is a rare thing in popular music, and her stories, tempestuous and explicit, have a mythic weight. Pitchfork, 1 Oct. 2024 The bad blood reached a boiling point in the sixth inning when Flaherty hit Tatis in the side, leading to a stare from the tempestuous right fielder and words from Profar. Bill Plaschke, Los Angeles Times, 7 Oct. 2024 That was never going to be easy, because red dwarfs like TRAPPIST-1 tend to be tempestuous, erupting and flaring in ways that can blast away atmospheres and also confound the weak atmospheric signal JWST is trying to detect. Bydaniel Clery, science.org, 20 June 2024 See all Example Sentences for tempestuous 

These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'tempestuous.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

Word History

Etymology

Middle English tempestuous, Latinization of tempestous, borrowed from Anglo-French, re-formation of Late Latin tempestuōsus, from tempestu-, probably extracted from Latin tempestūt-, tempestūs, archaic variant of tempestāt-, tempestās "stretch of time, season, weather, tempest entry 1" + -ōsus -ous

First Known Use

15th century, in the meaning defined above

Time Traveler
The first known use of tempestuous was in the 15th century

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Dictionary Entries Near tempestuous

Cite this Entry

“Tempestuous.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/tempestuous. Accessed 5 Nov. 2024.

Kids Definition

tempestuous

adjective
tem·​pes·​tu·​ous tem-ˈpes-chə-wəs How to pronounce tempestuous (audio)
-ˈpesh-
: violent sense 1, stormy
a tempestuous sea
a tempestuous relationship
tempestuously adverb
tempestuousness noun

More from Merriam-Webster on tempestuous

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