Cirrus

//ˈsɪɹəs// noun

noun ·Moderate ·College level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    A tendril.
  2. 2
    a slender flexible animal appendage as on barnacles or crinoids or many insects; often tactile wordnet
  3. 3
    A thin tendril-like appendage.
  4. 4
    a wispy white cloud (usually of fine ice crystals) at a high altitude (4 to 8 miles) wordnet
  5. 5
    A principal high-level cloud type, typically composed of thin, delicate, white filaments, wisps, or narrow bands.

    "Cirrus clouds moving from the southwest indicate falling temperature; moving from the northwest they indicate the probability of rising temperature."

Show 1 more definition
  1. 6
    usually coiled wordnet

Example

More examples

"Cirrus clouds are thin, wispy clouds that form high in the atmosphere as their water vapor freezes into ice crystals. Cirrus is one of the principal types of clouds."

Etymology

From Latin cirrus (“curl”).

Related phrases

Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.