tempestuous
adjective
Did you know?
A deluge of words in English do double duty in describing both the weather and the various emotions, relationships, and travails of humankind. You might be glad to know (or be) someone with a sunny disposition, for example, or find yourself bored to tears by a windy speech. Since its 15th century English debut, tempestuous has also blown in two directions, used in the context of literal storms (as in “tempestuous seas”) and for personalities, arguments, etc., that are figuratively “stormy,” being characterized by strong emotions. Like its older sibling in English, the noun tempest (“a violent storm,” “uproar”), tempestuous hails via Anglo-French from the Latin word tempestās, which has multiple meanings including “stretch of time,” “season,” and “stormy weather.”
Examples of tempestuous in a Sentence
Brian Truitt, USA Today, 10 Feb. 2026
The tempestuous Moon is in your heady sign, trining Jupiter in your 9th House of Learning.
—Tarot.com, Hartford Courant, 8 Feb. 2026
Below the 40th parallel in the Southern Ocean, there are sixty-knot winds and tempestuous seas, rainforests, mountains, white sand beaches and an ever-changing sky.
—Literary Hub, 28 Jan. 2026
With a father who has all but given up, a disconnected mother, 2 moody teenagers and a tempestuous little one – there’s already plenty of drama for one family to manage.
—Nellie Andreeva, Deadline, 27 Jan. 2026
See All Example Sentences for tempestuous
Cite this Entry
“Tempestuous.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/tempestuous. Accessed 13 Feb. 2026.
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tempestuous
adjective
