Thesaurus results for GALES

gales

noun

plural of gale

as in bursts

a sudden intense expression of strong feeling the audience responded to the comedian's joke with gales of laughter

Synonyms & Similar Words

Relevance

Example Sentences

Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

Recent Examples of gales Our arrival in the Madawaska River country of eastern Ontario, near Combermere, was noteworthy only for the snow flurries and marrow-chilling gales that howled down from Hudson Bay to greet us. — Harry H. Edel, Outdoor Life, 19 Aug. 2026 The weather in Wales was terrible, with snow and freezing temperatures and Arctic gales. — Christine Smallwood, Harpers Magazine, 24 Mar. 2026 Out in the ferocious gales of the North Sea, on the overcrowded routes of the Irish Sea and the English Channel, and off to the islands’ west, the wide Atlantic herself. — Literary Hub, 19 Nov. 2025 Such physical effects of wind are translatable; and so, most important of all, are the quarters from which the blasts or the breezes or the gales appear to come. — Big Think, 18 Nov. 2025 Fifty years ago this month, the gales of November swallowed the SS Edmund Fitzgerald along with her crew of 29 men, one of the largest ships to go down on Lake Superior and the Great Lakes. — Sarah Moore, Freep.com, 4 Nov. 2025 The threat of thunderstorms, gales, and violent lightning led to the cancellation of the final day of SailGP competition in Saint-Tropez. — Andrew Rice, New York Times, 13 Sep. 2025 Southern China also shuts down Southern China’s Hainan Island saw heavy rainfall and gales as the typhoon brushed past the island on Sunday. — Miranda Jeyaretnam, Time, 25 Aug. 2025 Strong winds were also a concern in areas where residents are accustomed to heavy rain, but not necessarily cyclone-strength gales. — Hilary Whiteman, CNN, 4 Mar. 2025

Recent Examples of Synonyms for gales

Noun

Back at Camp Cranium, bursts of laughter, whoops of delight and distant chatter punctuated the humid summer air.

— Lydia McFarlane, NPR, 25 Aug. 2026
To achieve this, the locus coeruleus continuously alternates between tonic activity—governing baseline arousal and alertness—and brief phasic bursts that focus attention on critical events.

— Julian Hayes II, Forbes.com, 23 Aug. 2026

Definition of bursts

Noun

The explosions provide different interruptions, punctuating the moment as one of Keeley’s ideas plays out in real time.

— Dessi Gomez, Deadline, 26 Aug. 2026
Over the course of its five-year mission, the Roman telescope will capture images of the Milky Way, survey the entire sky and observe supernova explosions that occurred as far as 8 billion years ago.

— Josh Feldman, NBC news, 26 Aug. 2026

Definition of explosions

Noun

The region was under a thunderstorm alert at the time and wind gusts exceeding 100 kilometers per hour (62 miles per hour) were recorded at a nearby meteorological station.

— ABC News, ABC News, 25 Aug. 2026
The region was under a thunderstorm alert at the time of the tornado, with wind gusts exceeding 60 miles per hour recorded at a nearby meteorological station.

— Los Angeles Times, Los Angeles Times, 25 Aug. 2026

Definition of gusts

Noun

He was accused of two other antisemitic outbursts and was eventually convicted in France on hate-speech charges.

— The Week US, TheWeek, 20 Aug. 2026
The 36-year-old Hubble is also dropping in orbit because of all the sun's recent outbursts and is expected to reenter the atmosphere in the 2030s if nothing is done.

— CBS News, CBS News, 19 Aug. 2026

Definition of outbursts

Noun

Mann said that the study doesn't have a complete record of corals over the past 1,000 years, and also that his research has shown that volcanic eruptions have played more of a role than climate change in past El Niño events.

— Doyle Rice, USA Today, 27 Aug. 2026
Sonic booms, volcanic eruptions and meteor airbursts can produce similar atmospheric shock waves, potentially creating other natural seismic sources.

— Nolan Roth, Scientific American, 23 Aug. 2026

Definition of eruptions

Noun

Barnard said studies have shown that Pacific storms generate about 30% more wave energy during an El Niño year compared to a year without the climate cycle.

— Andrew Freedman, CNN Money, 25 Aug. 2026
The storms are unlikely to reach the Kansas City forecast area, though there is a 10% to 20% chance of showers and thunderstorms late Tuesday night into Wednesday morning.

— Kansas City Star, Kansas City Star, 25 Aug. 2026

Definition of storms

Browse Nearby Words

galères

gales

galette

See all Nearby Words

Cite this Entry

Style

“Gales.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/gales. Accessed 28 Aug. 2026.

Copy Citation

Synonyms of gales

noun

Example Sentences

Browse Nearby Words

Cite this Entry

More from Merriam-Webster

Word of the Day

cogent

Popular in Grammar & Usage

A Who’s Who Regarding ‘Who’s’ and ‘Whose’

'A' or 'an'? What about before 'h'? An Indefinite Article Guide

Why is '-ed' sometimes pronounced at the end of a word?

What's the difference between 'fascism' and 'socialism'?

Commonly Misspelled Words

Popular in Wordplay

Ye Olde Nincompoop: Old-Fashioned Words for 'Stupid'

14 Phobias You Probably Haven't Heard Of

Even More Words That Sound Like Insults But Aren't

The Words of the Week - Aug. 28

Why do we say 'break a leg'?

Popular

A Who’s Who Regarding ‘Who’s’ and ‘Whose’

Ye Olde Nincompoop: Old-Fashioned Words for 'Stupid'

14 Phobias You Probably Haven't Heard Of

Games & Quizzes