RAINDROP

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does raindrop mean? 

• RAINDROP (noun)
  The noun RAINDROP has 1 sense:

1. a drop of rain

  Familiarity information: RAINDROP used as a noun is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• RAINDROP (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

A drop of rain

Classified under:

Nouns denoting natural phenomena

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

drib; driblet; drop (a small indefinite quantity (especially of a liquid))

Holonyms ("raindrop" is a part of...):

rain; rainfall (water falling in drops from vapor condensed in the atmosphere)

 Context examples 

The rain appears to have slowly changed over time, researchers said, noting that changes in the Martian atmosphere influenced how heavy the rain was, particularly the size of the raindrops.

(Heavy Rain May Have Once Fallen on Mars, VOA)

Pressure, researchers say, influences the size of raindrops.

(Heavy Rain May Have Once Fallen on Mars, VOA)

This means the raindrops could not have been bigger than three millimeters across.

(Heavy Rain May Have Once Fallen on Mars, VOA)

But as the atmosphere thinned over time, larger raindrops could form and were heavy enough to cut into the soil changing the shape of craters and leading to running water that could have carved valleys.

(Heavy Rain May Have Once Fallen on Mars, VOA)

By using basic physical principles to understand the relationship between the atmosphere, raindrop size and rainfall intensity, we have shown that Mars would have seen some pretty big raindrops that would have been able to make more drastic changes to the surface than the earlier fog-like droplets, said Ralph Lorenz of John Hopkins APL.

(Heavy Rain May Have Once Fallen on Mars, VOA)