tornado

From earlier English ternado, attested since the 1550s as a nautical term for a windy thunderstorm.^[1] From Spanish tronada (“thunderstorm”), from tronar (“to thunder”), from Latin tonō (“to thunder”), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)tenh₂- (“to thunder”). The o and r were reversed in English (metathesis) under influence of Spanish tornar (“to twist, to turn”), from Latin tornō (“to turn”).

• (UK) enPR: tô(r)-nā'dō, IPA^(key): /tɔː(ɹ)ˈneɪ.dəʊ/
• (US) IPA^(key): /tɔɹˈneɪ.doʊ/, /tɔɹˈneɪˌdoʊ/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

tornado (plural tornadoes or tornados)

2. (meteorology) A violent wind in the form of a mobile, rapidly rotating, funnel cloud that has contacted the ground.

   Synonym: twister

   • 2013 March, Frank Fish, George Lauder, “Not Just Going with the Flow”, in American Scientist‎^[1], volume 101, number 2, archived from the original on 1 May 2013, page 114:

     An extreme version of vorticity is a vortex. The vortex is a spinning, cyclonic mass of fluid, which can be observed in the rotation of water going down a drain, as well as in smoke rings, tornados and hurricanes.

• twister (informal)

• whirlwind

• → Danish: tornado
• → Irish: tornádó
• → Italian: tornado
• → Norwegian Bokmål: tornado
• → Norwegian Nynorsk: tornado
• → Russian: торнадо (tornado)
• → Spanish: tornado
  • → Dutch: tornado
  • → German: Tornado
  • → Portuguese: tornado

tornado (third-person singular simple present tornados, present participle tornadoing, simple past and past participle tornadoed)

1. (ambitransitive, figuratively) To sweep through something violently.
   • 2012, Robin Nicole, For the Sake of Appearances:

     And so on Friday nights, James Torin tornadoed through six beers, a carton of cigarettes, a coffee table littered with lottery tickets, and unrequited dreams.

   • 2015, James Richardson, Reservations: Poems, page 5:

     They come every night,
     those cavernous trains, tornadoing
     the frozen house,
     a madness feeling for the door.

• cyclone, dust devil, waterspout, willy willy
• hurricane, typhoon
• tournedo(s)

• donator, odorant, tandoor

From English tornado.

tornado c (singular definite tornadoen, plural indefinite tornadoer)

1. tornado

• Audio:

  (file)

tornado f or m (plural tornado's, diminutive tornadootje n)

1. tornado

From French tornade, Italian tornado, German Tornado, Yiddish טאָרנאַדאָ (tornado), Russian торна́до (tornádo), Polish tornado, all derived from English tornado, from Spanish tronada (“thunderstorm”).

• IPA^(key): /torˈnado/

• Audio:

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ado
• Hyphenation: tor‧na‧do

tornado (accusative singular tornadon, plural tornadoj, accusative plural tornadojn)

1. (meteorology) tornado

   Mia kuzino loĝis en Kansaso kaj spertis multajn danĝerajn tornadojn.

   My cousin lived in Kansas and experienced many dangerous tornadoes.

From English tornado, from Spanish tronada.

• IPA^(key): /ˈtornɑdo/, [ˈt̪o̞rnɑ̝do̞]
• Rhymes: -ornɑdo
• Syllabification^(key): tor‧na‧do
• Hyphenation^(key): tor‧na‧do

tornado

1. tornado

• pyörremyrsky
• trombi

• “tornado”, in Kielitoimiston sanakirja [Dictionary of Contemporary Finnish]‎^[2] (in Finnish) (online dictionary, continuously updated), Kotimaisten kielten keskuksen verkkojulkaisuja 35, Helsinki: Kotimaisten kielten tutkimuskeskus (Institute for the Languages of Finland), 2004–, retrieved 3 July 2023

tornado (feminine tornada, masculine plural tornados, feminine plural tornadas)

1. past participle of tornar

Borrowed from English tornado.

• IPA^(key): /torˈna.do/
• Rhymes: -ado
• Hyphenation: tor‧nà‧do

tornado m (usually invariable, plural (rare) tornadi)

1. tornado

• tornado in Treccani.it – Vocabolario Treccani on line, Istituto dell'Enciclopedia Italiana

• rotando, rotonda

From Spanish tronada, via English tornado.

tornado m (definite singular tornadoen, indefinite plural tornadoer, definite plural tornadoene)

1. (meteorology) a tornado

• “tornado” in The Bokmål Dictionary.

From Spanish tronada, via English tornado.

tornado m (definite singular tornadoen, indefinite plural tornadoar, definite plural tornadoane)

1. (meteorology) a tornado

• “tornado” in The Nynorsk Dictionary.

Borrowed from English tornado.

• IPA^(key): /tɔrˈna.dɔ/

• Audio:

  (file)

• Rhymes: -adɔ
• Syllabification: tor‧na‧do

tornado n (indeclinable)

1. (meteorology) tornado, twister, whirlwind (violent wind in the form of a mobile, rapidly rotating, funnel cloud that has contacted the ground)

   Synonyms: cyklon, trąba, trąba powietrzna

2. (figurative) tsunami (violent event that changes or completely shatters the previous state of something)

   Synonym: tsunami

3. (figurative) tsunami, flood (appearance of some emotion, behavior, or phenomenon in large quantities or in high intensity) [with genitive]

   Synonyms: natłok, tsunami

or

Indeclinable.

• tornado in Wielki słownik języka polskiego, Instytut Języka Polskiego PAN
• tornado in Polish dictionaries at PWN
• tornado in PWN's encyclopedia

• Hyphenation: tor‧na‧do

tornado m (plural tornados)

1. (meteorology) tornado

tornado (feminine tornada, masculine plural tornados, feminine plural tornadas)

1. past participle of tornar

From English tornado.

tornado (plural tornadoes)

1. tornado

From Spanish tornado.

• IPA^(key): /tǒrnaːdo/
• Hyphenation: tor‧na‧do

tòrnādo m inan (Cyrillic spelling то̀рна̄до)

1. tornado

• “tornado”, in Hrvatski jezični portal [Croatian language portal] (in Serbo-Croatian), 2006–2025

Borrowed from English tornado, and this in turn from Spanish tronada (see English etymology for details).

• IPA^(key): /toɾˈnado/ [t̪oɾˈna.ð̞o]
• Rhymes: -ado
• Syllabification: tor‧na‧do

tornado m (plural tornados)

1. tornado

tornado (feminine tornada, masculine plural tornados, feminine plural tornadas)

1. past participle of tornar

• “tornado”, in Diccionario de la lengua española [Dictionary of the Spanish Language] (in Spanish), online version 23.8, Royal Spanish Academy [Spanish: Real Academia Española], 10 December 2024

• tronado, rotando

tornado c

1. a larger tornado (especially in the US)

   Synonym: (more general) tromb

• tornado in Svensk ordbok (SO)
• tornado in Svenska Akademiens ordlista (SAOL)
• tornado in Svenska Akademiens ordbok (SAOB)