Tempestuous

 WORD OF THE DAY

tempestuous / adjective / tem-PESS-chuh-wus

Definition
1: of, relating to, or resembling a tempest
2: turbulent, stormy

Examples
"Reigning from c. 1479 until 1458 b.c., Hatshepsut was one of very few female pharaohs in ancient Egypt. Known for her ... tempestuous rise to power…."
— Lily Landau, Cracked, 22 Feb. 2022

Medvedev had a more tempestuous and challenging run to back-to-back Australian Open finals.
— John Pye, chicagotribune.com, 28 Jan. 2022

Did You Know?
Time is sometimes marked in seasons, and seasons are associated with the weather.
This explains how tempus, the Latin word for "time," could have given rise to an English adjective for things turbulent and stormy.
Tempus is the root behind Old Latin tempestus, meaning "season," and Late Latin tempestuosus, the direct ancestor of tempestuous.
As you might expect, tempus is also the root, by way of the Latin tempestas ("season, weather, or storm"), of the noun tempest.
Tempus may also be akin to the Latin verb temperare ("to moderate, mix, or temper"), which made its way through Anglo-French to become the English temper.