MEANING
1. A luminous cloud or halo surrounding a sacred figure, especially in religious art.
2. A cloud associated with rain or stormy weather.
Use it for
Describe a radiant halo or rain-bearing cloud.Its halo sense adds sacred or uncanny radiance; its weather sense can foreshadow rain.
Words that belong together
- a golden nimbus
- luminous nimbus
- storm nimbus
- gathering nimbus
- nimbus around the head
- rain-bearing nimbus
On the page
A painted nimbus circled the saint’s head in the dim chapel.
A dark nimbus gathered above the hills before dusk.
Nearby words
Opposite meanings
Word forms
- Base
- nimbus
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Usage notes
The art sense is a radiant cloud or halo around a sacred figure; the weather sense refers to a rain cloud. Sense 2: Meteorological usage names a rain cloud; in art and figurative writing, it can mean a radiant halo or surrounding aura.
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