cloud
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Pronunciation: enpr: kloud
ipa: /klaʊd/
rhymes: -aʊd
Forms: form: clouds
form: cloude
form: clowd
Etymology: From Middle English cloud, from Old English clūd (“mass of stone, rock, boulder, hill”), from Proto-West Germanic *klūt, from Proto-Germanic *klūtaz, *klutaz (“lump, mass, conglomeration”), from Proto-Indo-European *gel- (“to ball up, clench”).
Cognate with Scots clood, clud (“cloud”), Dutch kluit (“lump, mass, clod”), German Low German Kluut, Kluute (“lump, mass, ball”), German Kloß (“lump, ball, dumpling”), Danish klode (“sphere, orb, planet”), Swedish klot (“sphere, orb, ball, globe”), Icelandic klót (“knob on a sword's hilt”). Related to English clod, clot, clump, club. Largely replaced Middle English wolken, from Old English wolcn (whence Modern English welkin), the commonest Germanic word (compare Dutch wolk, German Wolke).
Senses: glosses: A rock; boulder; a hill.
examples: text: While he thus ſpake, there came a cloud, and ouerſhadowed them, ⁊ they feared, as they entred into the cloude.
ref: 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Luke 9:34:
text: So this was my future home, I thought![…]Backed by towering hills, the but faintly discernible purple line of the French boundary off to the southwest, a sky of palest Gobelin flecked with fat, fleecy little clouds, it in truth looked a dear little city; the city of one's dreams.
ref: 1908, W[illiam] B[lair] M[orton] Ferguson, chapter IV, in Zollenstein, New York, N.Y.: D. Appleton & Company, →OCLC:
glosses: A visible mass of water droplets suspended in the air.
examples: text: Since the mid-1980s, when Indonesia first began to clear its bountiful forests on an industrial scale in favour of lucrative palm-oil plantations, “haze” has become an almost annual occurrence in South-East Asia. The cheapest way to clear logged woodland is to burn it, producing an acrid cloud of foul white smoke that, carried by the wind, can cover hundreds, or even thousands, of square miles.
ref: 2013 June 29, “Unspontaneous combustion”, in The Economist, volume 407, number 8842, page 29:
glosses: Any mass of dust, steam or smoke resembling such a mass.
glosses: Anything which makes things foggy or gloomy. Example: The clouds were grey so James thought it was about to rain.
glosses: Anything unsubstantial.
glosses: A dark spot on a lighter material or background.
examples: text: He opened the door and was greeted by a cloud of bats.
text: so great a cloud of witnesses
ref: 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Hebrews 12:1:
text: The place was horribly haunted by clouds of mosquitoes and every form of flying pest, so we were glad to find solid ground again and to make a circuit among the trees, which enabled us to outflank this pestilent morass, which droned like an organ in the distance, so loud was it with insect life.
ref: 1912, Arthur Conan Doyle, The Lost World […], London; New York, N.Y.: Hodder and Stoughton, →OCLC:
glosses: A group or swarm, especially suspended above the ground or flying.
examples: text: The comic-book character's thoughts appeared in a cloud above his head.
glosses: An elliptical shape or symbol whose outline is a series of semicircles, supposed to resemble a cloud.
topics: communications
electrical-engineering
engineering
natural-sciences
physical-sciences
telecommunications
glosses: A telecom network (from their representation in engineering drawings).
examples: text: Now we are liberal with our innermost secrets, spraying them into the public ether with a generosity our forebears could not have imagined. Where we once sent love letters in a sealed envelope, or stuck photographs of our children in a family album, now such private material is despatched to servers and clouds operated by people we don't know and will never meet.
ref: 2013 June 14, Jonathan Freedland, “Obama's once hip brand is now tainted”, in The Guardian Weekly, volume 189, number 1, page 18:
text: […]the cloud could do this, it could do that. The cloud could be powerful and intelligent. It became a business buzzword and a selling point.
ref: 2018, James Bridle, The New Dark Age: Technology and the End of the Future, Verso Books, →ISBN:
text: “But there’s no fucking cloud,” says Crabapple, “there’s other people’s computers. There are vast datacentres that are sucking up water and electricity and rare-earth metals, literally boiling up the planet […]”
ref: 2024 February 17, Tom Lamont, quoting Molly Crabapple, “‘Humanity’s remaining timeline? It looks more like five years than 50’: meet the neo-luddites warning of an AI apocalypse”, in The Guardian, →ISSN:
qualifier: cloud computing
glosses: The Internet, regarded as an abstract amorphous omnipresent space for processing and storage, the focus of cloud computing.
examples: text: But when he found that some of his interrogatories were evaded, and others answered undecisively, the look of gentleness which he had assumed, vanished, and his brow wore the cloud of disappointment and of anger.
ref: 1798, Eleanor Sleath, The Orphan of the Rhine:
text: The only cloud on their night was that injury to Rafael, who was followed off the pitch by his anxious brother Fabio as he was stretchered away down the tunnel.
ref: 2011 January 25, Phil McNulty, “Blackpool 2-3 Man Utd”, in BBC:
glosses: A negative or foreboding aspect of something positive: see every cloud has a silver lining or every silver lining has a cloud.
glosses: Crystal methamphetamine.
glosses: A large, loosely-knitted headscarf worn by women.
coordinate_terms: void
glosses: A white cat.
Synonyms: word: cloud
Hyponyms: word: anvil cloud
word: bongcloud
word: brain cloud
word: funnel cloud
word: Magellanic Cloud
word: mammatus cloud
word: molecular cloud
word: mushroom cloud
word: Oort cloud
word: point cloud
word: rain cloud
word: star cloud
word: tag cloud
word: thundercloud
word: altocumulus
word: altostratus
word: cirrocumulus
word: cirrostratus
word: cirrus
word: cumulonimbus
word: cumulus
word: nimbostratus
word: pileus
word: pyrocumulus
word: stratocumulus
word: stratus
word: accessory cloud
word: standing cloud
word: banner cloud
word: cap cloud
word: crest cloud
word: lenticular cloud
word: smokecloud
word: stormcloud
Derived terms: sense: Terms derived from cloud
word: accessory cloud
sense: Terms derived from cloud
word: acloud
sense: Terms derived from cloud
word: banner cloud
sense: Terms derived from cloud
word: becloud
sense: Terms derived from cloud
word: blow a cloud
sense: Terms derived from cloud
word: brown cloud
sense: Terms derived from cloud
word: cap cloud
sense: Terms derived from cloud
word: cloud 9
sense: Terms derived from cloud
word: cloudage
sense: Terms derived from cloud
word: cloud bank
sense: Terms derived from cloud
word: cloud base
sense: Terms derived from cloud
word: cloudberry
sense: Terms derived from cloud
word: cloud bow
sense: Terms derived from cloud
word: cloud bread
sense: Terms derived from cloud
word: cloud-built
sense: Terms derived from cloud
word: cloudburst
sense: Terms derived from cloud
word: cloud-burst
sense: Terms derived from cloud
word: cloud burst
sense: Terms derived from cloud
word: cloudbust
sense: Terms derived from cloud
word: cloudbuster
sense: Terms derived from cloud
word: cloudbusting
sense: Terms derived from cloud
word: cloud canal
sense: Terms derived from cloud
word: cloudcapt
sense: Terms derived from cloud
word: cloud-capt
sense: Terms derived from cloud
word: cloudcast
sense: Terms derived from cloud
word: cloud ceiling
sense: Terms derived from cloud
word: cloud chamber
sense: Terms derived from cloud
word: cloud chaser
sense: Terms derived from cloud
word: cloud chasing
sense: Terms derived from cloud
word: cloud cisticola
sense: Terms derived from cloud
word: cloud computing
sense: Terms derived from cloud
word: cloud cover
sense: Terms derived from cloud
word: cloud-cuckoo-land
sense: Terms derived from cloud
word: cloud cuckoo land
sense: Terms derived from cloud
word: cloud cuckoo-land
sense: Terms derived from cloud
word: cloud deck
sense: Terms derived from cloud
word: cloud deer
sense: Terms derived from cloud
word: cloud ear
sense: Terms derived from cloud
word: cloud egg
sense: Terms derived from cloud
word: clouden
sense: Terms derived from cloud
word: clouder
sense: Terms derived from cloud
word: cloudery
sense: Terms derived from cloud
word: cloudfall
sense: Terms derived from cloud
word: cloud-first
sense: Terms derived from cloud
word: cloud forest
sense: Terms derived from cloud
word: cloudform
sense: Terms derived from cloud
word: cloudfree
sense: Terms derived from cloud
word: cloudful
sense: Terms derived from cloud
word: cloud genus
sense: Terms derived from cloud
word: cloud-headed
sense: Terms derived from cloud
word: cloud hole
sense: Terms derived from cloud
word: cloudification
sense: Terms derived from cloud
word: cloudify
sense: Terms derived from cloud
word: cloudiness
sense: Terms derived from cloud
word: cloudish
sense: Terms derived from cloud
word: cloud kitchen
sense: Terms derived from cloud
word: cloudland
sense: Terms derived from cloud
word: cloudless
sense: Terms derived from cloud
word: cloudlet
sense: Terms derived from cloud
word: cloudlike
sense: Terms derived from cloud
word: cloudline
sense: Terms derived from cloud
word: cloudling
sense: Terms derived from cloud
word: cloudly
sense: Terms derived from cloud
word: cloud mass
sense: Terms derived from cloud
word: cloud mining
sense: Terms derived from cloud
word: cloud-native
sense: Terms derived from cloud
word: cloud nine
sense: Terms derived from cloud
word: cloud number nine
sense: Terms derived from cloud
word: cloud of title
sense: Terms derived from cloud
word: cloudogram
sense: Terms derived from cloud
word: cloud on title
sense: Terms derived from cloud
word: cloud over
sense: Terms derived from cloud
word: Cloud Peak
sense: Terms derived from cloud
word: cloud point
sense: Terms derived from cloud
word: cloud rap
sense: Terms derived from cloud
word: cloud rat
sense: Terms derived from cloud
word: cloud-ridden
sense: Terms derived from cloud
word: cloudrunner
sense: Terms derived from cloud
word: cloudscape
sense: Terms derived from cloud
word: cloudscraper
sense: Terms derived from cloud
word: cloudseed
sense: Terms derived from cloud
word: cloud-seeding
sense: Terms derived from cloud
word: cloud seeding
sense: Terms derived from cloud
word: cloud seven
sense: Terms derived from cloud
word: cloud slime
sense: Terms derived from cloud
word: cloud species
sense: Terms derived from cloud
word: cloudspotter
sense: Terms derived from cloud
word: cloudspotting
sense: Terms derived from cloud
word: cloud storage
sense: Terms derived from cloud
word: cloud street
sense: Terms derived from cloud
word: cloud suck
sense: Terms derived from cloud
word: cloudtop
sense: Terms derived from cloud
word: cloud up
sense: Terms derived from cloud
word: cloudwash
sense: Terms derived from cloud
word: cloudwashed
sense: Terms derived from cloud
word: cloudwater
sense: Terms derived from cloud
word: cloudwise
sense: Terms derived from cloud
word: cloudy
sense: Terms derived from cloud
word: crest cloud
sense: Terms derived from cloud
word: dark cloud
sense: Terms derived from cloud
word: decloud
sense: Terms derived from cloud
word: discloud
sense: Terms derived from cloud
word: dustcloud
sense: Terms derived from cloud
word: electron cloud
sense: Terms derived from cloud
word: encloud
sense: Terms derived from cloud
word: every cloud has a silver lining
sense: Terms derived from cloud
word: every dark cloud has a silver lining
sense: Terms derived from cloud
word: fire cloud
sense: Terms derived from cloud
word: get off of someone's cloud
sense: Terms derived from cloud
word: have one's head in the clouds
sense: Terms derived from cloud
word: hole punch cloud
sense: Terms derived from cloud
word: intercloud
sense: Terms derived from cloud
word: interstellar cloud
sense: Terms derived from cloud
word: intracloud
sense: Terms derived from cloud
word: iridescent cloud
sense: Terms derived from cloud
word: Kordylewski cloud
sense: Terms derived from cloud
word: label cloud
sense: Terms derived from cloud
word: Land of the Long White Cloud
sense: Terms derived from cloud
word: lenticular cloud
sense: Terms derived from cloud
word: mother-of-pearl cloud
sense: Terms derived from cloud
word: multicloud
sense: Terms derived from cloud
word: nacreous cloud
sense: Terms derived from cloud
word: old man yelling at a cloud
sense: Terms derived from cloud
word: old man yelling at cloud
sense: Terms derived from cloud
word: old-man-yells-at-cloud
sense: Terms derived from cloud
word: old man yells at cloud
sense: Terms derived from cloud
word: on cloud nine
sense: Terms derived from cloud
word: on cloud seven
sense: Terms derived from cloud
word: overcloud
sense: Terms derived from cloud
word: pink cloud syndrome
sense: Terms derived from cloud
word: polar stratospheric cloud
sense: Terms derived from cloud
word: raincloud
sense: Terms derived from cloud
word: recloud
sense: Terms derived from cloud
word: Red Cloud
sense: Terms derived from cloud
word: revision cloud
sense: Terms derived from cloud
word: roll cloud
sense: Terms derived from cloud
word: shelf cloud
sense: Terms derived from cloud
word: smokecloud
sense: Terms derived from cloud
word: snow cloud
sense: Terms derived from cloud
word: snowcloud
sense: Terms derived from cloud
word: standing cloud
sense: Terms derived from cloud
word: storm cloud
sense: Terms derived from cloud
word: storm-cloud
sense: Terms derived from cloud
word: stormcloud
sense: Terms derived from cloud
word: subcloud
sense: Terms derived from cloud
word: sub-cloud car
sense: Terms derived from cloud
word: supercloud
sense: Terms derived from cloud
word: thunder cloud
sense: Terms derived from cloud
word: thundercloud
sense: Terms derived from cloud
word: twain cloud
sense: Terms derived from cloud
word: uncloud
sense: Terms derived from cloud
word: under a cloud
sense: Terms derived from cloud
word: wall cloud
sense: Terms derived from cloud
word: White Cloud
sense: Terms derived from cloud
word: Wilson cloud
sense: Terms derived from cloud
word: wind-cloud
sense: Terms derived from cloud
word: word cloud
sense: Terms derived from cloud
word: zeppelins in a cloud
sense: Terms derived from cloud
word: zodiacal cloud
Related terms: word: fog
word: mist
word: nebulous
word: :Category:Clouds