Stormy

How to spell stormy

6 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce stormy

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does stormy mean?

1. adjectiveMarked by strong winds, rain, or other violent weather; or, figuratively, full of anger and turmoil.

Stormy in a sentence

• The ferry was cancelled because of the stormy conditions at sea.

• A stormy night kept the campers huddled inside their tent.

Where does stormy come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

This word is built from the noun storm, which comes from the Old English storm, meaning a violent disturbance of the weather. That noun has deep Germanic roots, with close relatives in Dutch storm and German Sturm, and it ultimately traces back to a Proto-Germanic word linked to the idea of stirring, surging, or being thrown into turmoil. The adjective stormy was formed within English by adding the productive ending -y, which turns a noun into an adjective meaning 'full of' or 'marked by' that thing, just as in cloudy, rainy, and windy. By the medieval period stormy was already used both literally for wild weather and figuratively for turbulent moods and troubled relationships. The spelling stays comfortingly regular: keep the single m of storm and simply add -y, since the silent-e issue that trips up other adjectives never arises here.

How the word is built

• storm (tempest, from Old English storm)
• -y (adjective suffix meaning 'characterised by')