cumulonimbus
/ˌkjuː.mjʊ.ləʊˈnɪm.bəs/
"cumulonimbus" is a 12-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“cumulonimbus” is uncommon English (outside the top frequency list), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- Unranked
- below top-frequency English
- 12
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - A cloud with a tall structure and flat base, often associated with thunderstorms.
Corpus desk
Index EN-cumulonimbus · cumulonimbus · English
cumulonimbus · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
- LEN-MEGA 12 letters
- VOW-5 5 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-THIN "C" thin
- PHOTO-UNK Peer pending
Read with this headword: Spelling guide for this pattern
Desk codes from Wiktionary headword shape, FrequencyWords rank tier, confusable-pair count, generated misspelling depth, letter-cohort book size, and photo-finish peer. Not a difficulty grade.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | cumulonimbus |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ˌkjuː.mjʊ.ləʊˈnɪm.bəs/ |
| Letters | 12 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Long-tail rank of “cumulonimbus” in English
Rare enough to double-check
cumulonimbus is uncommon English outside the top frequency list, classed as anoun, transcribed /ˌkjuː.mjʊ.ləʊˈnɪm.bəs/. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "A cloud with a tall structure and flat base, often associated with thunderstorms.".
cumulonimbus has no tracked misspelling variants, a straightforward case of a spelling with little room for common typos. It is not paired with a close-neighbour confusable in our dataset, a sign it's visually distinctive enough not to be mixed up with another word.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Latin cumulus (“heap”) + nimbus (“cloud”). The correct English form is cumulonimbus, spelled C-U-M-U-L-O-N-I-M-B-U-S.
Definition
- 1A cloud with a tall structure and flat base, often associated with thunderstorms.
Recorded use
Wiktionary exampleThese source excerpts show how cumulonimbus appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
The one to the east (which at the moment seemed to be leaping straight out of the heart of a sinister slaty-purple patch of cumulonimbus) drained the Lake of the Hanging Glaciers; that to the west a desolate rock and ice-walled valley which was rimmed by some of the highest summits in the Selkirks.
Etymology
From Latin cumulus (“heap”) + nimbus (“cloud”).
This word in other languages
Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.