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TUMULT
Pronunciation (US): | (GB): |
I. (noun)
Sense 1
Meaning:
The act of making a noisy disturbance
Synonyms:
commotion; din; ruckus; ruction; rumpus; tumult
Classified under:
Nouns denoting acts or actions
Hypernyms ("tumult" is a kind of...):
disturbance (the act of disturbing something or someone; setting something in motion)
Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "tumult"):
ado; bustle; flurry; fuss; hustle; stir (a rapid active commotion)
Sense 2
Meaning:
Synonyms:
tumult; turmoil
Classified under:
Nouns denoting feelings and emotions
Hypernyms ("tumult" is a kind of...):
agitation (the feeling of being agitated; not calm)
Sense 3
Meaning:
A state of commotion and noise and confusion
Synonyms:
garboil; tumult; tumultuousness; uproar
Classified under:
Nouns denoting stable states of affairs
Hypernyms ("tumult" is a kind of...):
commotion; disruption; disturbance; flutter; hoo-ha; hoo-hah; hurly burly; kerfuffle; to-do (a disorderly outburst or tumult)
Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "tumult"):
combustion (a state of violent disturbance and excitement)
Derivation:
tumultuous (characterized by unrest or disorder or insubordination)
Context examples:
He still breathed the air, which bit his lungs with a painful sweetness; and dimly he saw and heard, with passing spells of blindness and deafness, the flashes of sight and sound again wherein he saw the hunters of Ivan falling to their deaths, and his own brothers fringing the carnage and filling the air with the tumult of their cries and weapons, and, far above, the women and children loosing the great rocks that leaped like things alive and thundered down.
(Love of Life and Other Stories, by Jack London)
The poem swung in majestic rhythm to the cool tumult of interstellar conflict, to the onset of starry hosts, to the impact of cold suns and the flaming up of nebulae in the darkened void; and through it all, unceasing and faint, like a silver shuttle, ran the frail, piping voice of man, a querulous chirp amid the screaming of planets and the crash of systems.
(Martin Eden, by Jack London)
In the midst of the tumult, and while my eyes and ears were fully engaged in the scene before me, I heard a hem close at my elbow: I turned, and saw Sam.
(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)
Something within me, faintly answering to the storm without, tossed up the depths of my memory and made a tumult in them.
(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)
Frankenstein, who was dozing, awoke and asked the cause of the tumult.
(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)
The tumult of her mind, was now painfully great.
(Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen)
They were close upon it when of a sudden there broke out a wild hubbub from a distant portion of the camp, with screams and war-cries and all the wild tumult of battle.
(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
Being a man of enormous physique, however, and possessed of a very powerful voice, he dominated the tumult and succeeded in finishing his speech.
(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
She had not long to endure what arose from listening to language which his actions contradicted, or to bury the tumult of her feelings under the restraint of society; for general civilities soon called his notice from her, and the farewell visit, as it then became openly acknowledged, was a very short one.
(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)
It was half an hour, or possibly three-quarters, before everything had been found, and Lorimer was already waiting in Jermyn Street with the inevitable baskets, whilst my uncle stood in the open door of his house, clad in his long fawn-coloured driving-coat, with no sign upon his calm pale face of the tumult of impatience which must, I was sure, be raging within.
(Rodney Stone, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)