heat lightning
"heat-lightning" is a 13-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“heat lightning” is uncommon English (outside the top frequency list), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- Unranked
- below top-frequency English
- 14
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - 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).
Corpus desk
Index EN-heat-lightning · heat lightning · English
heat lightning · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
- LEN-MEGA 14 letters
- VOW-4 4 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-THIN "H" 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 | heat lightning |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| Letters | 14 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Long-tail rank of “heat lightning” in English
Rare enough to double-check
heat lightning is uncommon English outside the top frequency list, classed as anoun. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 3 senses are on record.
heat lightning has no tracked misspelling variants, since its letter pattern doesn't lend itself to common typo substitutions. Our dataset records no confusable match here, which typically means the spelling is too distinctive to be mistaken for another word.
Etymologically, the entry records: So called because it is common on hot summer nights and is sometimes popularly thought to be caused by heat rather storms. The correct English form is heat lightning, spelled H-E-A-T- -L-I-G-H-T-N-I-N-G.
Definition
- 1Lightning 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).
- 2Lightning 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).
- 3Lightning 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).
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how heat lightning appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
Joel Brinkley, a schoolteacher, who was a child in the 1950s, recalled a similar feeling during this era: "It seems surreal now. Every summer, when I heard heat lightning over the city and the sky would light up, I was convinced it was all over. My whole childhood was built on the notion that the Soviets were the real threat."
The beginning of a watery diarrheal event is said to be marked by a great deal of noise, characterized as […] rumbling (tzilelet 'rumbling sound of heat lightning in the rainy season'), […]
Etymology
So called because it is common on hot summer nights and is sometimes popularly thought to be caused by heat rather storms.
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.