cyclone

English

Cyclone Catarina, 2004.

Pronunciation

• Audio (US)

  (file)

Etymology

Coined by Henry Piddington, probably in the 1840s, and based on some term in Ancient Greek. Sources disagree on the date and on which Ancient Greek term, though it had to be something derived from either κύκλος (kuklos, “circle, wheel”) or κυκλόω (kukloō, “go around in a circle, form a circle, encircle”).

Noun

cyclone (plural cyclones)

1. A system of winds rotating around a center of low atmospheric pressure.
2. A low pressure system.
3. (popular) The more or less violent, small-scale circulations such as tornadoes, waterspouts, and dust devils.
4. A strong wind.
5. A Southeastern and Indian Ocean weather phenomenon that results in wind speeds of around 150 to 200 km/h.

Quotations

• For usage examples of this term, see the citations page.

Derived terms

• anticyclone

Translations

rotating system of winds

• Albanian: ciklon (sq)
• Arabic: إعصار m ('i3Saar)
• Armenian: ցիկլոն (cʿiklon)
• Breton: kelc'hwidenn (br)
• Bulgarian: циклон (bg) m (ciklon)
• Catalan: cicló (ca) m
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 氣旋, 气旋 (zh) (qìxuán), 龍捲風 (zh), 龙卷风 (zh) (lóngjuǎnfēng)

• Czech: cyklóna (cs) m
• Danish: orkan (da)
• Dutch: cycloon (nl) m, wervelstorm m
• Esperanto: ciklono
• Estonian: tsüklon
• Finnish: sykloni (fi)
• French: cyclone (fr) m
• German: Zyklon (de) m, Zyklone (de) f
• Greek:

  Ancient: κυκλῶν m (kuklōn)

  Modern: κυκλώνας (el) m (kyklónas)

• Hebrew: ציקלון (he) m (tziqlon)
• Hungarian: ciklon (hu)
• Interlingua: cyclon
• Italian: ciclone (it)
• Japanese: サイクロン (ja) (saikuron), 低気圧 (ja) (ていきあつ, teikiatsu)
• Latin: cyclonas
• Persian: سیکلون (siklon), چرخند (čarxand)
• Portuguese: ciclone (pt) m
• Romanian: ciclon (ro) n
• Russian: циклон (ru) m (ciklón)
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: циклон m, циклона f

  Roman: ciklon m, ciklona f

• Slovene: ciklon (sl) m
• Spanish: ciclón (es) m
• Swahili: saikloni m
• Swedish: cyklon (sv) c
• Telugu: తుఫాను (te) (tuphaanu), గాలివాన (te) (gaalivaana)
• Turkish: siklon (tr)

Southeastern and Indian Ocean weather phenomenon

• Finnish: sykloni (fi)
• Greek: κυκλώνας (el) m (kyklónas)

• Indonesian: siklon (id)
• Swedish: cyklon (sv) c

See also

• hurricane
• typhoon
• polar vortex
• Cyclone on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

---

French

Etymology

From Ancient Greek κυκλῶν (kuklōn), present active participle of κυκλόω (kukloō, “I encircle”), from κύκλος (kuklos, “circle”)

Pronunciation

• Audio

  (file)

Noun

cyclone m (plural cyclones)

1. cyclone (rotating system of winds)