Cloud

How to spell cloud

5 letters · 1 syllable

How to pronounce cloud

What does cloud mean?

1. nounA visible mass of condensed water vapour floating in the sky.
2. nounNetworked remote servers used to store data and run software over the internet.
3. verbTo make something less clear, transparent, or easy to understand.

Cloud in a sentence

• noun

  A single dark cloud drifted across the otherwise clear afternoon sky.

• noun

  The company moved all its customer records to the cloud to save on hardware costs.

• verb

  Strong emotions can cloud a person's judgement during a negotiation.

• noun

  The pilot climbed above the thick layer of cloud before the storm.

• noun

  She backed up every family photo to the cloud before wiping her old phone.

• verb

  A few drops of milk will cloud the otherwise clear broth.

Where does cloud come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

The word comes from the Old English clud, which surprisingly meant a mass of rock or a hill, not anything in the sky. The link to the sky came from resemblance: a rounded heap of vapour looked like a rounded heap of rock, so by the 1200s the word had drifted to mean the visible billowing masses in the air. The older rocky sense eventually faded out of ordinary use, leaving only the weather meaning we know today. The spelling kept its native English shape, with the 'ou' representing a sound that shifted over centuries. Because the word is so old and so common, it has stayed short and regular, with no foreign letters or tricky doubled consonants to trip up a writer.

How the word is built

• cloud (a single native root word; from Old English clud meaning a mass of rock or a hill)