Supercell

noun

noun ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    A severe thunderstorm with updrafts and downdrafts that are in near balance, allowing the storm to maintain itself for several hours. Supercells often produce large hail, powerful downpours, very strong winds and sometimes tornadoes.

    "They watched the supercell that spawned the F5 killer that struck Oklahoma City spit out one tornado after another. In two cases, the researchers believe, the Dopplers captured tornadoes being formed — including the Oklahoma City monster."

  2. 2
    A repeating unit cell of a crystal that contains several primitive cells.

Example

More examples

"They watched the supercell that spawned the F5 killer that struck Oklahoma City spit out one tornado after another. In two cases, the researchers believe, the Dopplers captured tornadoes being formed — including the Oklahoma City monster."

Etymology

From super- + cell.

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