1
as in storm
a disturbance of the atmosphere accompanied by wind and often by precipitation (as rain or snow)
the sudden summertime tempest drove us off the golf course and into the clubhouse
Synonyms & Similar Words
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2
as in upheaval
a violent disturbance (as of the political or social order)
the town council handled the tempest over cuts to the school budget as well as could be expected
Synonyms & Similar Words
Example Sentences
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Recent Examples of tempest
The catalyst of the looming tempest is the Morton Amphitheater, which will open this summer in Riverside with 30 or more concerts already on the schedule.
—
Dan Kelly, Kansas City Star, 27 Jan. 2026
This gripping page-turner — featuring a decades-old murder, a writer in town to tell the real story and an oncoming tempest — feels like it was ripped from the juiciest headlines.
—Carly Tagen-Dye, PEOPLE, 11 Jan. 2026
While the idea of a one-time tax on more than 200 people has a long way to go before getting onto the ballot and would need to be passed by voters in November, the tempest around it captures the zeitgeist of angst and anger at the core of California.
—Seema Mehta, Los Angeles Times, 2 Jan. 2026
This wild tempest of a tale set in Depression-era Nebraska follows a prairie witch and a high school girl swept up into a tumultuous western epic about the tragedies and ambitions of Manifest Destiny.
—Ron Charles, CBS News, 28 Dec. 2025
See All Example Sentences for tempest
Dan Kelly, Kansas City Star, 27 Jan. 2026
This gripping page-turner — featuring a decades-old murder, a writer in town to tell the real story and an oncoming tempest — feels like it was ripped from the juiciest headlines.
—Carly Tagen-Dye, PEOPLE, 11 Jan. 2026
While the idea of a one-time tax on more than 200 people has a long way to go before getting onto the ballot and would need to be passed by voters in November, the tempest around it captures the zeitgeist of angst and anger at the core of California.
—Seema Mehta, Los Angeles Times, 2 Jan. 2026
This wild tempest of a tale set in Depression-era Nebraska follows a prairie witch and a high school girl swept up into a tumultuous western epic about the tragedies and ambitions of Manifest Destiny.
—Ron Charles, CBS News, 28 Dec. 2025
See All Example Sentences for tempest
Recent Examples of Synonyms for tempest
Noun
-
The probability of lightning strikes rises as a thunderstorm approaches and peaks when the storm is directly above.—
NC Weather Bot,
Charlotte Observer,
23 June 2026
-
The camp did not timely evacuate in advance of the July 3-4, 2025, storm, despite ample opportunity to do so.—
Mateo Rosiles,
USA Today,
23 June 2026
Noun
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Yet at a time of perpetual upheaval in Hollywood, the unflashy Meledandri has created and shaped one of Hollywood’s most consistent blockbuster-making operations.—
ABC News,
ABC News,
19 June 2026
-
Earth-impacting shrapnel from those primordial upheavals may have helped seed our planet with the precursors for life, delivering water and organic compounds from the dark, icy depths of the outer solar system.—
Lee Billings,
Scientific American,
18 June 2026
Noun
-
Haiti also did it without playing a single qualifying match in Haiti because of unrest.—
Amna Subhan for the AJC,
AJC.com,
23 June 2026
-
Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed’s Prosperity Party retained its large parliamentary majority in recent elections overshadowed by unrest in Africa’s second-most-populous country.—
Jenny Vaughan,
semafor.com,
22 June 2026
Noun
-
Shares have jumped 80% in the year to date as an ongoing memory supply crunch accelerates the adoption of lithography equipment for the production of semiconductors required to power the AI revolution.—
Liz Napolitano,
CNBC,
22 June 2026
-
Haitian soldiers seasoned on American battlefields during the revolution later sparked Haiti’s overthrow of French colonial rule, depriving France of its most profitable slave colony and ending one of the most brutal enslavement of human beings in modern world history.—
Paul Vallas,
Chicago Tribune,
22 June 2026
Noun
-
It is estimated that there are 500,000 detectable earthquakes in the world each year.—
CA Earthquake Bot,
Sacbee.com,
19 June 2026
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The researchers say the finding highlights how much remains unknown about the behavior of large earthquakes and the complex interactions between seismic waves and tectonic plates.—
Neetika Walter,
Interesting Engineering,
18 June 2026
Cite this Entry
“Tempest.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/tempest. Accessed 25 Jun. 2026.
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