Definitions

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

  • noun An extended cloud formation of bluish or gray sheets or layers.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A thin horizontal sheet of clouds, usually disappearing slowly: apparently a lower layer of what under favorable circumstances might have been a cumulus cloud. The outer surface, melting away at sunset, gives rise to beautiful sunset cloud-colors by reflection of light from the sun or the sky beyond the western horizon.
  • noun A rather high cloud covering the sky as a layer whose lower surface is horizontal. The extreme boundaries of such an alto-stratus cloud thin away into a series of alto-cumuli.

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

  • noun (Meteor.) A cloud formation similar to cirro-stratus, but heavier and at a lower level; a stratus cloud at an intermediate altitude of 2 or 3 miles.

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

  • noun physics, meteorology . A principal medium-level cloud type in the form of a gray or bluish (never white) sheet or layer of striated, fibrous, or uniform appearance.

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

  • noun a stratus cloud at an intermediate altitude of 2 or 3 miles

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Latin altus, high; see al- in Indo-European roots + stratus.]

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Examples

  • Above 6,500 feet can be found altocumulus ("clumps or rolls") and altostratus (a "drab and featureless" haze), as well as the storm clouds nimbostratus ("dim, miserable") and cumulonimbus ("the shape of a blacksmith's anvil").

    Cirrus Concerns Peter Pesic 2011

  • On this day, however, the sky, layered with thin altostratus clouds and smog, appeared to reflect human suffering and failed to awaken in Claude visions of paradise.

    La insistencia de Jürgen Fauth 2010

  • High-altitude cirrus, cirrostratus and middle-altitude altostratus clouds are found well in advance of the front.

    Air masses and frontal transitional zones 2009

  • Weather Phenomenon Prior to the Passing of the Front Contact with the Front After the Passing of the Front Temperature Cool Warming suddenly Warmer then leveling off Atmospheric Pressure Decreasing steadily Leveling off Slight rise followed by a decrease Winds South to southeast Variable South to southwest Precipitation Showers, snow, sleet or drizzle Light drizzle None Clouds Cirrus, cirrostratus, altostratus, nimbostratus, and then stratus Stratus, sometimes cumulonimbus Clearing with scattered stratus, sometimes scattered cumulonimbus

    Air masses and frontal transitional zones 2009

  • Along the gently sloping warm front, the lifting of moist air produces first nimbostratus clouds followed by altostratus and cirrostratus.

    Mid-latitude cyclone 2008

  • It was a good blue one, with a few puffy cirrocumulus clouds, and some altostratus thrown in for contrast.

    Something Unpredictable Barbara Chepaitis 2003

  • It was a good blue one, with a few puffy cirrocumulus clouds, and some altostratus thrown in for contrast.

    Something Unpredictable Barbara Chepaitis 2003

  • It was a good blue one, with a few puffy cirrocumulus clouds, and some altostratus thrown in for contrast.

    Something Unpredictable Barbara Chepaitis 2003

  • With the thicker altostratus and nimbostratus clouds comes the rain, which is then followed by clear and warmer weather.

    Sailing Fundamentals Gary Jobson 1998

  • With the thicker altostratus and nimbostratus clouds comes the rain, which is then followed by clear and warmer weather.

    Sailing Fundamentals Gary Jobson 1998

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