Monsoon

//mɒnˈsuːn// noun

noun ·Moderate ·College level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    Any of a number of winds associated with regions where most rain falls during a particular season.
  2. 2
    a seasonal wind in southern Asia; blows from the southwest (bringing rain) in summer and from the northeast in winter wordnet
  3. 3
    Tropical rainy season when the rain lasts for several months with few interruptions.

    "Floods in northern India, mostly in the small state of Uttarakhand, have wrought disaster on an enormous scale. The early, intense onset of the monsoon on June 14th swelled rivers, washing away roads, bridges, hotels and even whole villages. Rock-filled torrents smashed vehicles and homes, burying victims under rubble and sludge."

  4. 4
    any wind that changes direction with the seasons wordnet
  5. 5
    The rains themselves.
Show 3 more definitions
  1. 6
    rainy season in southern Asia when the southwestern monsoon blows, bringing heavy rains wordnet
  2. 7
    Entire meteorological systems with such characteristics.
  3. 8
    Any heavy rainstorm. figuratively

Synonyms

All synonyms
downpourair currentcat-and-dog weathercrosscurrentcurrentcurrent of air

Example

More examples

"The monsoon is a central element."

Etymology

From Portuguese monção and Dutch moesson, from Arabic مَوْسِم (mawsim, “season”), from وَسَمَ (wasama, “to mark, to brand”).

Related phrases

monsoon bucketmonsoon forestmonsoon seasonnortheast monsoonsouthwest monsoonasia rainheavy rainheavy rainsindian rainlate summerrain lotsrainy storm

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