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What is the difference between storm and tempest?

storm | tempest |

As nouns the difference between storm and tempest

is that storm is any disturbed state of the atmosphere, especially as affecting the earth's surface, and strongly implying destructive or unpleasant weather while tempest is a storm, especially one with severe winds.

As verbs the difference between storm and tempest

is that storm is to move quickly and noisily like a storm, usually in a state of uproar or anger while tempest is to storm.

storm

English

Etymology 1

From (etyl) storm, from (etyl) . Related to (l).

Noun

(en noun)
  • Any disturbed state of the atmosphere, especially as affecting the earth's surface, and strongly implying destructive or unpleasant weather.
  • * Shakespeare
  • We hear this fearful tempest sing, / Yet seek no shelter to avoid the storm .
  • * {{quote-magazine, date=2012-01
  • , author=Donald Worster , title=A Drier and Hotter Future , volume=100, issue=1, page=70 , magazine= citation , passage=Phoenix and Lubbock are both caught in severe drought, and it is going to get much worse. We may see many such [dust] storms in the decades ahead, along with species extinctions, radical disturbance of ecosystems, and intensified social conflict over land and water. Welcome to the Anthropocene, the epoch when humans have become a major geological and climatic force.}}
  • A violent agitation of human society; a civil, political, or domestic commotion; violent outbreak.
  • The proposed reforms have led to a political storm .
  • * Shakespeare
  • Her sister / Began to scold and raise up such a storm .
  • (meteorology) a wind scale for very strong wind, stronger than a gale, less than a hurricane (10 or higher on the Beaufort scale).
  • (military) A violent assault on a stronghold or fortified position.
  • Hyponyms
    * See also
    Coordinate terms
    * (meteorology) breeze, gale, hurricane
    Derived terms
    * barnstorm * bestorm * duststorm * leafstorm * sandstorm * snowstorm * storm in a tea-kettle * stormlike * stormtrooper * stormy * thunderstorm * windstorm
    See also
    * blizzard

    Etymology 2

    From (etyl) stormen, sturmen, from (etyl) .

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • To move quickly and noisily like a storm, usually in a state of uproar or anger.
  • She stormed out of the room.
  • To assault (a stronghold or fortification) with military forces.
  • Troops stormed the complex.

    tempest

    English

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • A storm, especially one with severe winds.
  • * 1847 , (Herman Melville), Omoo: A Narrative of Adventures in the South Seas , ch. 16:
  • As every sailor knows, a spicy gale in the tropic latitudes of the Pacific is far different from a tempest in the howling North Atlantic.
  • *{{quote-book, year=1892, author=(James Yoxall)
  • , chapter=5, title= The Lonely Pyramid , passage=The desert storm was riding in its strength; the travellers lay beneath the mastery of the fell simoom.
  • Any violent tumult or commotion.
  • * 1914 , (Ambrose Bierce), "One Officer, One Man":
  • They awaited the word "forward"—awaited, too, with beating hearts and set teeth the gusts of lead and iron that were to smite them at their first movement in obedience to that word. The word was not given; the tempest did not break out.
  • (label) A fashionable social gathering; a drum.
  • (Smollett)

    Derived terms

    * tempest in a teapot * tempestuous

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • (rare) To storm.
  • (transitive, chiefly, poetic) To disturb, as by a tempest.
  • * 1667 , , Paradise Lost , Book VII:
  • . . . the seal
    And bended dolphins play; part huge of bulk,
    Wallowing unwieldy, enormous in their gait,
    Tempest the ocean.
  • * 1811 , , "The Drowned Lover," in Poems from St. Irvyne :
  • Oh! dark lowered the clouds on that horrible eve,
    And the moon dimly gleamed through the tempested air.

    References

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