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Glite Dictionary
🔵 Lens-shaped 👁️ Eye lens-related ☁️ A lens-shaped cloud
lenticularis

lenticularis

9.9
A high cloud shaped like a lens that forms near mountains
  • noun
  • Specialized
translation icon : nube lenticular
  • The lenticularis cloud hovered over the mountain peak, creating a stunning visual against the blue sky.

Examples

  • As the storm approached, lenticularis clouds began to gather, indicating changes in atmospheric pressure.

  • Lenticular clouds (Altocumulus lenticularis) are stationary lens-shaped clouds that form at high altitudes, normally in perpendicular alignment to the wind direction.

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  • Hikers were warned about possible lenticularis clouds forming in the area, which could signal unpredictable weather.

Surface Forms

lenticularis singular
lenticularises plural

Morphology

lenticularis = lenticular (semi-transparent) = lenticul + is

Derived from 'lenticular' meaning 'lens-shaped'; the application to cloud types is conceptually transparent but the Latin ending '-is' is not a productive English affix.

Etymology

Lenticularis comes from the Latin lens, meaning 'lentil', because a lentil looks like a small, flat, curved disk. So a lenticularis cloud is a 'lens-shaped' cloud, the round, flying-saucer form you often see near mountains.