cumulus

[ kyoo-myuh-luhs ]

noun

, plural cu·mu·lus.

1. a heap; pile.
2. a cloud of a class characterized by dense individual elements in the form of puffs, mounds, or towers, with flat bases and tops that often resemble cauliflower: as such clouds develop vertically, they form cumulonimbus.

cumulus

/ ˈkjuːmjʊləs /

noun

1. a bulbous or billowing white or dark grey cloud associated with rising air currents Compare cirrus stratus
2. histology the mass of cells surrounding a recently ovulated egg cell in a Graafian follicle

cumulus

/ kyo̅o̅m′yə-ləs /

, Plural cumuli kyo̅o̅m′yə-lī′

1. A dense, white, fluffy cloud with a flat base, a multiple rounded top, and a well-defined outline. The bases of cumulus clouds form primarily in altitudes below 2,000 m (6,560 ft), but their tops can reach much higher. Cumulus clouds are generally associated with fair weather but can also bring rain when they expand to higher levels. The clouds' edges are well-defined when they are composed of water droplets and fuzzy when made up of ice crystals.
2. See illustration at cloud

Word History and Origins

Origin of cumulus¹

1650–60; < New Latin ( Latin: mass, pile)

Word History and Origins

Origin of cumulus¹

C17: from Latin: mass

Example Sentences

Suddenly, I found myself hiking through clouds, wisps of cumulus drifting across the trail and through the dwarf pine trees and between barren, limbless trunks of the high-alpine forest.

From Outside Online

Using airborne instruments to analyze small cumulus clouds affected by the smoke, the scientists found that these clouds contained, on average, five times as many water droplets as unaffected clouds.

From Science News

On our second day, the smoke scattered in the midsummer breeze and high cumulus clouds, and the air was clearer.

From Outside Online

Cumulus Media, which now owns the former Dial Global, declined to comment on the suit for this story.

From The Daily Beast

And I love these wonderful fat cumulus clouds that we get in the sky.

From The Daily Beast

“We've had a tough go of it this last year,” Cumulus CEO Lew Dickey said Tuesday morning.

From The Daily Beast

A great cumulus cloud piled up like a Himalayan peak in the west beyond my mouse-gray dwelling.

From Project Gutenberg

He pointed upward to a break in the trees, to a large cumulus cloud that had assumed a fantastic shape.

From Project Gutenberg

In the afternoon small cumulus clouds arose in the horizon, and we again put forward under a temperature of 95 degrees.

From Project Gutenberg

It was a detached and imperial cumulus, a great frothy pyramid that sailed in majestic splendor.

From Project Gutenberg

He received the acknowledgment and brought his machine around to face the lordly bulk of the cumulus.

From Project Gutenberg