Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • adjective Very loud; noisy.
  • adjective Characterized by disorderly commotion.
  • adjective Characterized by mental or emotional agitation.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • Pull of tumult, disorder, or confusion; conducted with tumult; disorderly.
  • Characterized by uproar, noise, confusion, or the like: as, a tumultuous assembly.
  • Agitated; disturbed, as by passion.
  • Turbulent; violent.
  • Synonyms Uproarious, riotous.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • adjective Full of tumult; characterized by tumult; disorderly; turbulent.
  • adjective Conducted with disorder; noisy; confused; boisterous; disorderly.
  • adjective Agitated, as with conflicting passions; disturbed.
  • adjective Turbulent; violent.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • adjective Noisy and disorderly
  • adjective Causing tumult

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • adjective characterized by unrest or disorder or insubordination

Etymologies

Sorry, no etymologies found.

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Examples

  • The adjective "tumultuous" is often used to describe the events of the 1960s.

    Something Happening Here Melanie Kirkpatrick 2010

  • Billowed in tumultuous joys and affianced, why you would but will it and your girl would have it.

    Miss her, Catullus? : A.E. Stallings : Harriet the Blog : The Poetry Foundation 2007

  • Her “red deeps,” as she termed her tumultuous feelings, became exacerbated at Johns Hopkins, where her love for another woman was not reciprocated.

    Gertrude Stein. 2009

  • His subject matter will be determined by the age he lives inat least this is true in tumultuous, revolutionary ages like our ownbut before he ever begins to write he will have acquired an emotional attitude from which he will never completely escape.

    Why I Write 1946

  • Her spoon was gone; that was beyond question, and Daisy's little spirit was in tumultuous disturbance – very uncommon indeed with her.

    Melbourne House 1907

  • Tweed lied to Goody about his occupation, age and heritage on their first meeting, but the couple still entered a long-term tumultuous relationship.

    All - Digital Spy - Entertainment and Media News 2009

  • The gates of the city were thrown open, and the new emperor of the Romans, encompassed on every side by the Gothic arms, was conducted, in tumultuous procession, to the palace of Augustus and

    The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire 1206

  • They decreed in tumultuous votes, * that his honors should be reversed, his titles erased from the public monuments, his statues thrown down, his body dragged with a hook into the stripping room of the gladiators, to satiate the public fury; and they expressed some indignation against those officious servants who had already presumed to screen his remains from the justice of the senate.

    The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire 1206

  • Attorney Vincent Romano, who represents Porcelli hopes that Buoneto recorded the intense discussion that he had with his client in August, on the last day of what the lawyer described as a tumultuous and terrifying two-week ordeal for Porcelli, who has a 19-year-long history of anxiety and depression, according to the attorney.

    Jerry Capeci: Feds Went Down Low to Make Mob Sex-Trafficking Case 2010

  • He called the tumultuous period since those attacks '' 19 months that changed the world, '' and said Mr. Hussein's defeat was a defeat for al-Qaeda and other terrorists as well ....

    Greg Mitchell: On 6th Anniversary of 'Mission Accomplished' -- How the Media Blew It 2009

Comments

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  • I hear the Shadowy Horses, their long manes a-shake,

    Their hoofs heavy with tumult, their eyes glimmering white;

    The North unfolds above them clinging, creeping night,

    The East her hidden joy before the morning break,

    The West weeps in pale dew and sighs passing away,

    The South is pouring down roses of crimson fire:

    O vanity of Sleep, Hope, Dream, endless Desire,

    The Horses of Disaster plunge in the heavy clay:

    Beloved, let your eyes half close, and your heart beat

    Over my heart, and your hair fall over my breast,

    Drowning love’s lonely hour in deep twilight of rest,

    And hiding their tossing manes and their tumultuous feet.

    - W.B. Yeats, 'Michael Robartes bids his Beloved be at Peace'.

    September 18, 2009

  • You'll find that someone's been sticking live eels up the bums of them horses. Or ginger, or both.

    September 18, 2009

  • This really sounds like a Smittcamp word. Its a fun word to say.

    September 28, 2011

  • Thanks for posting this one, as it has given me trouble since I was in high school. This definitely relates to Gladwell's Outliers.

    Visit his site.

    September 28, 2011

  • Choosing this word was helpful, because I did not understand what the word ment in the book Outliers.

    Go see Malcolm!

    September 28, 2011

  • Satan grabbed the Devil by his cape, and the two rolled tumultuously about the room.

    January 18, 2018