Meaning & use

tornado

noun·Academic

A violently rotating column of air that extends from a thunderstorm to the ground.

See it in a sentence

The tornado tore the roof off the barn and scattered debris across the field.

Residents took shelter in the basement as the tornado siren began to wail.

A note on using this word

Tornadoes are measured on the Enhanced Fujita scale, which rates their destructive wind speed.

Words with a similar meaning

twister

Choose a synonym to suit the sentence. Meanings can overlap without being identical.

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