Turbulent

How to spell turbulent

9 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce turbulent

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does turbulent mean?

1. adjectiveMarked by violent, unsteady, or disorderly movement, or by conflict and unrest.

Turbulent in a sentence

• The pilot warned passengers about turbulent air over the mountains.

• The ferry struggled across the turbulent waters of the strait.

Where does turbulent come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word comes from the Latin turbulentus, meaning 'full of commotion' or 'restless', which was built on the noun turba, meaning a 'crowd', 'uproar', or 'disturbance'. The underlying image is of a milling, agitated throng of people, so the word always carried a sense of disorder and stirred-up movement rather than calm. Latin turba is also distantly related to the Greek turbe, meaning 'disorder', and it left other traces in English through words like 'disturb' and 'perturb'. English took turbulent in the late fifteenth century, partly through French, first describing unruly people and only later being applied to rough water and stormy air. The spelling trap sits in the middle, where the unstressed vowels in -bu-lent slip easily into a vague schwa, so writers must remember the 'u' after the 'b' and the 'ent' ending rather than 'ant'.

How the word is built

• turb- (from Latin turba: commotion, crowd)
• -ulent (adjective suffix: full of)