tonitruate

T1O1N1I1T1R1U1A1T1E1
/təˈnɪtɹʊeɪt/

verb

To thunder.

OriginLatin tonitruare →
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Meanings

verbtonitruate (third-person singular simple present tonitruates, present participle tonitruating, simple past and past participle tonitruated)

present singular third person tonitruates · participle present tonitruating · participle past tonitruated · past tonitruated

  1. intransitiverareTo thunder.

    Stertile thunder tonitruated terribly. ‘Oh Lord forgive us our bloody sins.’ Rain now pelted. It was hard work finding a taxi.

    1980, Anthony Burgess, Earthly Powers
    1 more example

    […] yet through the caliginous sublimity of internexed conundrums, tonitruating with obstreperous cadencies, you rather obfuscate than illuminate our A-b-c-darian conceptions […]

    1733 August, The Gentleman's Magazine, page 412

Origin

  1. Latintonitruare“to thunder”
  2. Englishtonitruate

From the past participle stem of Latin tonitruare (“to thunder”), from tonitrus (“thunder”) + -ate.

More words from Latin

Full word history & related roots →
Cite this entry
APA

tonitruate. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 4, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/tonitruate

MLA

“tonitruate.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/tonitruate. Accessed November 4, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “tonitruate,” accessed November 4, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/tonitruate.

Source: tonitruate on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.