cloud
pronunciation
How to pronounce cloud in British English:
UK [klaʊd]
How to pronounce cloud in American English:
US [klaʊd]
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- Noun:
- any collection of particles (e.g., smoke or dust) or gases that is visible
- a visible mass of water or ice particles suspended at a considerable altitude
- out of touch with reality
- a cause of worry or gloom or trouble
- suspicion affecting your reputation
- a group of many insects
-
- Verb:
- make overcast or cloudy
- make less visible or unclear
- billow up in the form of a cloud
- make gloomy or depressed
- place under suspicion or cast doubt upon
- colour with streaks or blotches of different shades
- make milky or dull
Word Origin
- cloud
- cloud: [OE] In Old English the word for ‘cloud’ was weolcen (whence modern English welkin, a poetical term for ‘sky’), which is related to German wolke ‘cloud’. At that time Old English clūd, the ancestor of cloud, meant ‘mass of rock, hill’ (it is probably related to clod). As applied to ‘clouds’, presumably from a supposed resemblance between cumulus clouds and lumps of earth or rock, it dates from the 13th century.=> clod
- cloud (n.)
- Old English clud "mass of rock, hill," related to clod. Metaphoric extension to "raincloud, mass of evaporated water in the sky" is attested by c. 1200 based on similarity of cumulus clouds and rock masses. The usual Old English word for "cloud" was weolcan. In Middle English, skie also originally meant "cloud." The four fundamental types of cloud classification (cirrus, cumulus, stratus, nimbus) were proposed by British amateur meteorologist Luke Howard (1772-1864) in 1802. Figuratively, as something that casts a shadow, from early 15c.; hence under a cloud (c. 1500). In the clouds "removed from earthly things; obscure, fanciful, unreal" is from 1640s. Cloud-compeller translates (poetically) Greek nephelegereta, a Homeric epithet of Zeus.
- cloud (v.)
- early 15c., "overspread with clouds, cover, darken," from cloud (n.). From 1510s as "to render dim or obscure;" 1590s as "to overspread with gloom." Intransitive sense of "become cloudy" is from 1560s. Related: Clouded; clouding.
Antonym
Example
- 1. The internet is an information cloud .
- 2. As the country recovers , two problems cloud its future .
- 3. Nor was roh the only former asian leader under a cloud .
- 4. The result is a smooth , rounded cloud , capping the clouds beneath it .
- 5. The mist in the background is a cloud of laser-illuminated olive oil droplets .