Lightning vs. Thunderbolt

Lightningnoun

A flash of light produced by short-duration, high-voltage discharge of electricity within a cloud, between clouds, or between a cloud and the earth.

‘Although we did not see the lightning, we did hear the thunder.’;

Thunderboltnoun

A flash of lightning accompanied by a crash of thunder.

Lightningnoun

A discharge of this kind.

‘The lightning was hot enough to melt the sand.’; ‘That tree was hit by lightning.’;

Thunderboltnoun

(figuratively) An event that is terrible, horrific or unexpected.

Lightningnoun

(figuratively) Anything that moves very fast.

Thunderboltnoun

Vehement threatening or censure; especially, ecclesiastical denunciation; fulmination.

Lightningnoun

The act of making bright, or the state of being made bright; enlightenment; brightening, as of the mental powers.

Thunderboltnoun

(soccer) A very powerful shot.

Lightningadjective

Extremely fast or sudden.

Thunderboltnoun

(paleontology) A belemnite, or thunderstone.

Lightningadjective

Moving at the speed of lightning.

Thunderboltnoun

(heraldry) A charge in the form of two joined bundles with four rays of lightning emerging from them, resembling the thunderbolt of Jupiter.

Lightningverb

To produce lightning.

Thunderboltnoun

A daring or irresistible hero.

Lightningnoun

A discharge of atmospheric electricity, accompanied by a vivid flash of light, commonly from one cloud to another, sometimes from a cloud to the earth. The sound produced by the electricity in passing rapidly through the atmosphere constitutes thunder.

Thunderboltnoun

A shaft of lightning; a brilliant stream of electricity passing from one part of the heavens to another, or from the clouds to the earth.

Lightningnoun

The act of making bright, or the state of being made bright; enlightenment; brightening, as of the mental powers.

Thunderboltnoun

Something resembling lightning in suddenness and effectiveness.

‘The Scipios' worth, those thunderbolts of war.’;

Lightning

Lightening.

Thunderboltnoun

Vehement threatening or censure; especially, ecclesiastical denunciation; fulmination.

‘He severely threatens such with the thunderbolt of excommunication.’;

Lightningnoun

abrupt electric discharge from cloud to cloud or from cloud to earth accompanied by the emission of light

Thunderboltnoun

A belemnite, or thunderstone.

Lightningnoun

the flash of light that accompanies an electric discharge in the atmosphere (or something resembling such a flash); can scintillate for a second or more

Thunderboltnoun

a discharge of lightning accompanied by thunder

Lightning

Lightning is a naturally occurring electrostatic discharge during which two electrically charged regions, both in the atmosphere or with one on the ground, temporarily equalize themselves, causing the instantaneous release of as much as one gigajoule of energy. This discharge may produce a wide range of electromagnetic radiation, from very hot plasma created by the rapid movement of electrons, to brilliant flashes of visible light in the form of black-body radiation.

Thunderboltnoun

a shocking surprise;

‘news of the attack came like a bombshell’;

Thunderbolt

A thunderbolt or lightning bolt is a symbolic representation of lightning when accompanied by a loud thunderclap. In Indo-European mythology, the thunderbolt was identified with the 'Sky Father'; this association is also found in later Hellenic representations of Zeus and Vedic descriptions of the vajra wielded by the god Indra.