Standard Lemma guide

radiosonde

noun · 1 senses · updated from the 2026-07-25 local source snapshot

Definitions and examples are grouped by meaning. Pronunciation, history, word forms, translations, descendants, synonyms, antonyms, derived terms, and related words appear whenever the source provides them.

Sound

Pronunciation

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1

noun

Meaning 1

A miniature radio carried aloft (e.g. by an uncrewed balloon, an airdrop from a crewed aircraft, or a sounding rocket) to automatically transmit measurements of the upper air such as the wind speed, pressure, temperature, and relative humidity to a receiving station on the ground.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Examples

  • 1980, National Research Council (U.S.) Select Committee on the National Weather Service, Technological and Scientific Opportunities for Improved Weather and Hydrological Services in the Coming Decade, page 44, The ultimate limitation of radiosonde networks is the impracticality of global deployment. [...] Although, in principle, satellite soundings should be able to match radiosonde accuracies, in practice, they have errors of at least twice those of radiosondes.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

History

Etymology

From radio + sonde.

Across languages

Translations

5 source translations are retained for this English entry.

  • Finnish: radiosondi — balloon radio
  • Italian: radiosondaggio — balloon radio
  • Italian: radiosonda — balloon radio
  • Russian: радиозо́нд (radiozónd) — balloon radio
  • Spanish: radiosonda — balloon radio