🥁 A drummer 🥁 Noisemaker sticks 🔫 A gun (slang)

thunderstick

1 6.1

A long inflatable plastic stick people bang together to make noise at sports games or concerts

noun
/ˈθʌndərˌstɪk/

: bastón de ruido

At the concert, the audience enthusiastically banged their thundersticks to the rhythm of the music.

Examples

The fans waved their thundersticks in excitement as the team took the field.
It's beautiful," said Hassan, 28, a kabab cook by day who sold thundersticks by night at the stadium.

Blog text (27)
And as he was saying that little prayer, you could hear the sound of thunder from all those thundersticks outside.

Blog text (18)
During the championship game, every spectator had a pair of colorful thundersticks to show their support.

Synonyms

noisemaker

vsthunderstick

5 3.3

A small object you blow or shake to make a loud sound at parties

is a specific long inflatable stick banged by spectators at sports events

thunderer

vsthunderstick

9.3

A device that makes a loud sound like thunder

is a long inflatable stick banged by spectators at sports events

Antonyms

silence

660 2.0

A period with no sound or speech

How Loud

air horn

1 3.0

thunderstick

1 6.1

whistle

279 1.0

Surface Forms

thunderstick singular

thundersticks plural

Morphology

thunderstick = thunder + stick (transparent) = thunder + stick

A direct, literal compound 'thunder' + 'stick' referring to a stick that makes thunder-like noise when banged, so learners can infer the meaning from the parts.

Etymology

Thunderstick comes from the two simple words thunder ('a very loud sound') and stick ('a long thin object'). Fans bang inflatable sticks to make a thunder-like noise, so a thunderstick is a long, soft stick used to make loud cheering.