cumulous

7.6

Clouds that are large, fluffy, and piled in heaps

adjective
/ˈkjuːmjələs/

Specialized

: cumuloso

The sky was dotted with cumulous clouds, promising fair weather for the afternoon.

Examples

Pilots often watch for cumulous buildups as indicators of changing weather conditions.
The sky was filled with cumulous clouds.
A cumulous formation hovered over the mountains, casting soft shadows on the slopes below.
Look at those cumulous formations over there!
A cumulous formation hovered over the mountains, casting soft shadows on the slopes below.
The sky was dotted with cumulous clouds, promising fair weather for the afternoon.
Pilots often watch for cumulous buildups as indicators of changing weather conditions.

Synonyms

cumulus

vscumulous

1 6.3

A word used to describe white fluffy clouds with a flat base

is about resembling those clouds rather than being the cloud type itself

cumuliform

vscumulous

Specialized

9.9

A cloud with a round, fluffy shape like cotton in the sky

emphasizes resemblance to the whole cloud type rather than only shape

How Fluffy

cumulous

Specialized

7.6

puffy

51 2.2

Surface Forms

cumulous positive

Morphology

cumulous = cumulus (transparent) = cumulus + ous

The adjective 'cumulous' is transparently formed from the noun 'cumulus' with the suffix '-ous', indicating a characteristic of cumulus clouds.

Etymology

The word cumulous comes from the Latin cumulus, meaning 'heap' or 'pile'. Like the familiar word accumulate ('to heap up'), cumulous describes clouds that look like soft heaps of cotton, so you can remember them as 'pile-like' fluffy clouds.