From Middle English thunder, thonder, thundre, thonre, thunnere, þunre, from Old English þunor (“thunder”), from Proto-West Germanic *þunr, from Proto-Germanic *þunraz, from Proto-Indo-European *(s)ten-, *(s)tenh₂- (“to thunder”). Compare astound, astonish, stun. Germanic cognates include West Frisian tonger, Dutch donder, German Donner, Old Norse Þórr (English Thor), Danish torden, Norwegian Nynorsk tore. Other cognates include Persian تندر (tondar), Latin tonō, detonō, Ancient Greek στένω (sténō), στενάζω (stenázō), στόνος (stónos), Στέντωρ (Sténtōr), Irish torann, Welsh taran, Gaulish Taranis. Doublet of donner, Thunor, and Thor.
1
The loud rumbling, cracking, or crashing sound caused by expansion of rapidly heated air around a lightning bolt.
Thunder is preceded by lightning.
Thunder cracked overhead.
1 more example
With each clap of thunder echoing from one high building to another the noise was terrific.1953 July, Allen Rowley, “First Impressions of American Railways”, in Railway Magazine, page 493:
2
A deep, rumbling noise resembling thunder.
Off in the distance, he heard the thunder of hoofbeats, signalling a stampede.
3
An alarming or startling threat or denunciation.
The thunders of the Vatican could no longer strike into the heart of princes.1847, William H. Prescott, A History of the Conquest of Peru:
4
Obsolete The discharge of electricity; a thunderbolt.
The revenging gods / 'Gainst parricides did all their thunders bend.c. 1603–1606, William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of King Lear”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act II, scene i]:
Adam's fall and Vico's thunder are embodied in a word of a hundred letters, the first of ten thunders in the Wake.1996, William York Tindall, A Reader's Guide to Finnegans Wake, page 31:
Etymology From Middle English thundren, from Old English þunrian (“to thunder”), from Proto-West Germanic *þunrōn, from Proto-Germanic *þunrōną (“to thunder”).
1
To produce thunder; to sound, rattle, or roar, as a discharge of atmospheric electricity.
It thundered continuously.
2
To make a noise like thunder.
The train thundered along the tracks.
The farmer whose land the Pratincole had chosen to frequent had such an adversion to birders that he had been thundering up and down all day in a high-powered muck-spreader, splattering them with cow dung!1983, Bill Oddie, Gone Birding, London: Methuen, page 59:
1 more example
His words landed like a bomb, and my ears thundered with noise.2019, Abby Chava Stein, Becoming Eve, Seal Press, page 46:
3
Ergative To (make something) move very fast (with loud noise).
Senseless years thunder by / Millions are willing to give their lives for you / Does nothing live on?1983, “Forbidden Colours”, in David Sylvian (lyrics), Ryuichi Sakamoto (music), Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence, performed by David Sylvian:
4
To say (something) with a loud, threatening voice.
"Get back to work at once!", he thundered.
5
To produce something with incredible power.
Just as it appeared Arsenal had taken the sting out of the tie, Johnson produced a moment of outrageous quality, thundering a bullet of a left foot shot out of the blue and into the top left-hand corner of Wojciech Szczesny's net with the Pole grasping at thin air.2011 January 19, Jonathan Stevenson, “Leeds 1 - 3 Arsenal”, in BBC Sport, archived from the original on 19 Mar 2011: