CYCLONE

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does cyclone mean? 

• CYCLONE (noun)
  The noun CYCLONE has 2 senses:

1. (meteorology) rapid inward circulation of air masses about a low pressure center; circling counterclockwise in the northern hemisphere and clockwise in the southern

2. a violent rotating windstorm

  Familiarity information: CYCLONE used as a noun is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• CYCLONE (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

(meteorology) rapid inward circulation of air masses about a low pressure center; circling counterclockwise in the northern hemisphere and clockwise in the southern

Classified under:

Nouns denoting stable states of affairs

Hypernyms ("cyclone" is a kind of...):

atmosphere; atmospheric state (the weather or climate at some place)

Meronyms (parts of "cyclone"):

depression; low (an air mass of lower pressure; often brings precipitation)

Domain category:

meteorology (the earth science dealing with phenomena of the atmosphere (especially weather))

Antonym:

anticyclone ((meteorology) winds spiraling outward from a high pressure center; circling clockwise in the northern hemisphere and counterclockwise in the southern)

Derivation:

cyclonal (of or relating to or characteristic of the atmosphere around a low pressure center)

cyclonic (of or relating to or characteristic of a violent tropical storm)

cyclonic; cyclonical (of or relating to or characteristic of the atmosphere around a low pressure center)

Sense 2

Meaning:

A violent rotating windstorm

Classified under:

Nouns denoting natural phenomena

Hypernyms ("cyclone" is a kind of...):

windstorm (a storm consisting of violent winds)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "cyclone"):

hurricane (a severe tropical cyclone usually with heavy rains and winds moving at 63-136 knots (12 on the Beaufort scale))

tornado; twister (a localized and violently destructive windstorm occurring over land characterized by a funnel-shaped cloud extending toward the ground)

typhoon (a tropical cyclone occurring in the western Pacific or Indian oceans)

Derivation:

cyclonal; cyclonic (of or relating to or characteristic of a violent tropical storm)

cyclonic (of or relating to or characteristic of the atmosphere around a low pressure center)

cyclonical (of or relating to or characteristic of a violent tropical storm)

 Context examples 

None of the six storms showed signs of yielding to allow other cyclones to join in.

(NASA's Juno Navigators Enable Jupiter Cyclone Discovery, NASA)

Dorothy told the Witch all her story: how the cyclone had brought her to the Land of Oz, how she had found her companions, and of the wonderful adventures they had met with.

(The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, by L. Frank Baum)

However, as tightly spaced as the cyclones are, they have remained distinct, with individual morphologies over the seven months of observations.

(Jupiter’s Jet-Streams Are Unearthly, NASA)

In the north Australian city of Darwin, about 25,000 homes were also without power after a tropical cyclone felled trees.

(Australian Wildfires Destroy Homes, Kill Cattle as Hundreds of People Flee, The Titi Tudorancea Bulletin)

Early science results from NASA’s Juno mission to Jupiter portray the largest planet in our solar system as a complex, gigantic, turbulent world, with Earth-sized polar cyclones, plunging storm systems that travel deep into the heart of the gas giant, and a mammoth, lumpy magnetic field that may indicate it was generated closer to the planet’s surface than previously thought.

(First Science Results from NASA’s Juno Mission, NASA)

Or could these cyclones, each nearly as wide as the continental U.S., be more permanent fixtures?

(NASA's Juno Navigators Enable Jupiter Cyclone Discovery, NASA)

Almost all the polar cyclones, at both poles, are so densely packed that their spiral arms come in contact with adjacent cyclones.

(Jupiter’s Jet-Streams Are Unearthly, NASA)

Now, it is quite beyond my powers to make a cyclone; but I've been thinking the matter over, and I believe I can make a balloon.

(The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, by L. Frank Baum)

Its data indicate wind speeds of the new cyclone average 225 mph (362 kph) - comparable to the velocity found in its six more established polar colleagues.

(NASA's Juno Navigators Enable Jupiter Cyclone Discovery, NASA)

Jupiter’s south pole also contains a central cyclone, but it is surrounded by five cyclones with diameters ranging from 3,500 to 4,300 miles (5,600 to 7,000 kilometers) in diameter.

(Jupiter’s Jet-Streams Are Unearthly, NASA)