English word senses marked with topical category "Lightning"

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Parent categories: Atmospheric phenomena, Electricity, Light sources, Weather, Atmosphere, Electromagnetism, Light, Nature, Physics, Energy, Sciences

Total 68 word senses

• CG lightning (Noun) Cloud-to-ground lightning; lightning which connects (attaches) to the ground; lightning which results in the discharge of electricity between a cloud and the ground.
• IC lightning (Noun) Intracloud lightning; lightning which occurs within a cloud, resulting in the discharge of electricity between regions of the cloud. (Often, but not always, this takes the form of sheet lightning.)
• ball lightning (Noun) A short-lived glowing ball sometimes observed to float in the air and thought to consist of ionized gas associated with thunderstorms.
• bead lightning (Noun) A relatively rare form of cloud-to-ground lightning which appears to break up into a string of short, bright sections, and lasts longer than the usual discharge channel.
• blue jet (Noun) An upper atmospheric optical phenomenon associated with thunderstorms, a rapidly expanding disk-shaped region of luminosity, lasting less than a thousandth of a second, which occurs high above energetic cloud-to-ground lightning of positive or negative polarity.
• blue starter (Noun) A rapidly expanding disc-shaped region of luminosity, lasting less than a thousandth of a second, seen high above energetic lightning associated with hail-producing regions of thunderstorms, reaching up no higher than about 12 miles altitude.
• chain lightning (Noun) Lightning in angular, zigzag, or forked flashes.
• dirty thunderstorm (Noun) A weather phenomenon that is related to the production of lightning within a volcanic plume.
• dry lightning (Noun) Lightning strikes that occur when there is no rain, thus a common cause of bushfires or forest fires.
• elve (Noun) A rapidly expanding disk-shaped region of red luminosity in the ionosphere, lasting less than a thousandth of a second, which occurs high above energetic cloud-to-ground lightning of positive or negative polarity.
• fork lightning (Noun) Lightning that contains bolts that branch.
• forked lightning (Noun) Fork lightning.
• fossilized lightning (Noun) A fulgurite.
• fulgural (Adjective) Of or related to lightning, particularly (historical) in reference to its use in divination.
• fulgurant (Adjective) Resembling a lightning flash; fulgurous.
• fulgurite (Noun) Glass formed by a lightning strike melting sand or other material.
• fulgurous (Adjective) Full of lightning.
• gigantic jet (Noun) An upper atmospheric optical phenomena associated with thunderstorms, a carrot-shaped red sprite that propagates upward from the core of an oceanic thunderstorm.
• globe lightning (Noun) Synonym of ball lightning
• globular lightning (Noun) Synonym of ball lightning
• gnome (Noun) The mountain pygmy owl, Glaucidium gnoma, a small owl of the western United States.
• heat lightning (Noun) Lightning and/or thunder which the observer attributes to heat rather than a storm (e.g. because the storm/rain is too distant to be seen, or because there is no rain, as with dry lighting).; Visible lightning that occurs too far away for the resulting thunder to be audible by the observer.
• heat lightning (Noun) Lightning and/or thunder which the observer attributes to heat rather than a storm (e.g. because the storm/rain is too distant to be seen, or because there is no rain, as with dry lighting).; Thunder that is heard without lightning being seen by the observer; heat thunder.
• heat lightning (Noun) Lightning and/or thunder which the observer attributes to heat rather than a storm (e.g. because the storm/rain is too distant to be seen, or because there is no rain, as with dry lighting).
• lightning (Noun) A flash of light produced by short-duration, high-voltage discharge of electricity within a cloud, between clouds, or between a cloud and the earth.
• lightning (Noun) Anything that moves very fast.
• lightning (Noun) Gin.
• lightning arrester (Noun) A device used on electrical and telecommunications systems to protect the insulation and conductors from the damaging effects of lightning. Typically, it has a high-voltage terminal and a ground terminal. When a surge travels along the power line to the arrester, the current from the surge is diverted through the arrester, in most cases to earth.
• lightning bird (Noun) A mythological creature in South African tribal folklore: a large, vampiric, black and white bird that can summon thunder and lightning and is said to consume blood and to seduce women in the form of a man.
• lightning bolt (Noun) A single, visible discharge of lightning.
• lightning bolt (Noun) A conventional representation of a lightning bolt as a zigzag line.
• lightning bolt (Noun) A conventional representation of a lightning bolt in heraldry or in artistic depictions of thunder gods, for example as a winged and barbed torch.
• lightning conductor (Noun) A metallic conductor that is attached to a high point of a building and leads to the ground and protects the building from damage by lightning.
• lightning detector (Noun) A device that provides an alarm to inform its user(s) that lightning has occurred nearby. Specific devices are available for a variety of applications.
• lightning discharger (Noun) A lightning arrester.
• lightning doesn't strike twice in the same place (Proverb) Alternative form of lightning never strikes twice in the same place
• lightning fast (Adjective) Extremely fast, fast as lightning.
• lightning mapper (Noun) The component of such a system that gathers the required data, comprising an interconnected network of electric field change sensors that measure the time of arrival of electric field pulses from the strokes in a lightning flash. Two-dimensional maps require three such sensors, and three-dimensional maps require four.
• lightning never strikes twice (Proverb) An allusive shortening of lightning never strikes twice in the same place, usually used figuratively.
• lightning never strikes twice in the same place (Proverb) Opportunities never appear recurrently.
• lightning rod (Noun) A metallic conductor that is attached to a high point of a building and leads to the ground to protect the building from damage by lightning.
• lightning storm (Noun) Synonym of thunderstorm
• lightning strike (Noun) A lightning bolt, stroke of lightning, one of the events during an electrical storm when lightning strikes (an object on) the ground or an aircraft in flight.
• pixie (Noun) A playful sprite or elflike or fairy-like creature.
• pixie (Noun) An upper-atmospheric optical phenomenon associated with thunderstorms, a short-lasting pinpoint of light on the surface of convective domes that produces a gnome.
• pixie (Noun) A butterfly of the genus Melanis.
• pixie (Noun) Ellipsis of pixie cut.
• red sprite (Noun) An upper atmospheric optical phenomena associated with thunderstorms, a large but weak luminous flash that appears directly above an active thunderstorm system and is coincident with a powerful positive cloud-to-ground lightning strike.
• sheet lightning (Noun) A broad flash of lightning, with no visible bolt, due to reflection.
• spider lightning (Noun) Very long flashes of lightning (tens or sometimes hundreds of kilometers long) that travel horizontally across the sky, tapping extensive pools of electrical charge in the clouds, particular once a CG (cloud-to-ground) channel is established.
• sprelve (Noun) An upper atmospheric optical phenomena associated with thunderstorms, in which an elve is immediately followed by a sprite.
• sprite (Noun) A large electrical discharge that occurs high above the cumulonimbus cloud of an active thunderstorm, which appears as a luminous red or orange flash.
• sprite (Noun) Alternative form of spright (“frame of mind, disposition”)
• sprite (Verb) To draw a (specifically) pixel art sprite.
• sprite halo (Noun) An upper-atmospheric optical phenomenon associated with thunderstorms, a diffuse disk-shaped glow that precedes a sprite and propagates downward.
• thunder and lightning (Noun) A thunderstorm.
• thunderbolt (Noun) A flash of lightning accompanied by a crash of thunder.
• thunderbolt (Noun) A very powerful shot.
• thunderbolt (Noun) A belemnite, or thunderstone.
• thunderbolt (Noun) A charge in the form of two joined bundles with four rays of lightning emerging from them, resembling the thunderbolt of Jupiter.
• thunderbolt (Verb) To move swiftly and violently.
• thunderstorm (Noun) A storm consisting of thunder and lightning produced by a cumulonimbus, usually accompanied with heavy rain, wind, and sometimes hail; and in rarer cases sleet, freezing rain, or snow.
• transient luminous event (Noun) Any of a variety of upper atmospheric optical phenomena associated with thunderstorms.
• troll (Noun) An optical ejection from the top of the electrically active core region of a thunderstorm that is red in colour that seems to occur after tendrils of vigorous sprites extend downward towards cloudtops.
• troll (Verb) Senses relating to a rolling motion.; Often followed by in: to cause (something) to flow or roll in like a stream.
• troll (Verb) Senses relating to fishing.; To fish using a line and bait or lures trailed behind a boat similarly to trawling.
• upward lightning (Noun) An upper-atmospheric optical phenomenon associated with thunderstorms, in which the lightning bolt projects straight into the upper atmosphere.
• volcanic lightning (Noun) Electrical discharge that occurs during a volcanic eruption, caused by a build-up of static electricity in colliding ejecta (such as ash and debris).

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