typhoon

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• Received-Pronunciation: /taɪˈfuːn/
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• General-American: tīfo͞onʹ
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• General-American: /taɪˈfun/
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• US: Recorded audio is listed in the source snapshot.
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• Australia: Recorded audio is listed in the source snapshot.
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• rhymes with -uːn
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• CMU ARPABET: T AY2 F UW1 N Digits mark lexical stress: 1 primary, 2 secondary, 0 unstressed.
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English texts mention typhon, tiphon as a Greek word for "whirlwind" since at least the 1550s, referring to Ancient Greek τυφῶν (tuphôn), τυφώς (tuphṓs, “whirlwind”) (the latter attested since Aeschylus), Τυφῶν (Tuphôn, “Typhon, father of the winds”). (French typhon (“whirlwind”) is said to be attested since 1504.) However, the first use of it as an English word for a whirlwind or storm dates to 1588, in the spelling Touffon, in the specific sense "giant storm in the Pacific"; this sense first appears in Europe in the mid 16th century in Portuguese tufão (attested since at least 1560), whence it entered English. Portuguese sailors likely got the word from Arabic طُوفَان (ṭūfān) (compare Persian طوفان (tufân), Hindi तूफ़ान (tūfān)), and some spellings of the English word (like tufan) seem to derive from that Arabic word. The Arabic word's origin is sometimes thought to be Sinitic 大風/大风 ("big wind", Mandarin dàfēng, Cantonese daai6 fung1 /taːi̯22 fʊŋ55/, Hakka thai-fûng /thai̯55 fuŋ24/), and some English forms like tyfoong, tyfung are from or were modified based on Chinese. However, the Arabic word may be entirely Semitic from the native root ط و ف (ṭ w f) in the sense of the wind circling around, or it might derive from Greek. (Some sources even suggest the term originated in Greek and travelled via Arabic to Chinese before making its way back into Arabic and back to Europe.) Over time, the spelling of the word in English was influenced by the Greek word.

121 source translations are retained for this English entry.

• Afrikaans: tifoon — hurricane in the Pacific
• Albanian: taifun — hurricane in the Pacific
• Amis: faliyos — hurricane in the Pacific
• Arabic: تَايْفُون (tayfūn) — hurricane in the Pacific
• Arabic: إِعْصَار (ʔiʕṣār) — hurricane in the Pacific
• Arabic: طُوفَان (ṭūfān) — hurricane in the Pacific
• Armenian: թայֆուն (tʻayfun) — hurricane in the Pacific
• Azerbaijani: tayfun — hurricane in the Pacific
• Azerbaijani: tufan — hurricane in the Pacific
• Basque: tifoi — hurricane in the Pacific
• Belarusian: тайфу́н (tajfún) — hurricane in the Pacific
• Bengali: টাইফুন (ṭaiphun) — hurricane in the Pacific
• Bengali: ঘূর্ণিঝড় (ghurnijhoṛ) — hurricane in the Pacific
• Central Bikol: bagyo — hurricane in the Pacific
• Bulgarian: тайфу́н (tajfún) — hurricane in the Pacific
• Bunun: balivus — hurricane in the Pacific
• Burmese: တိုင်ဖွန်း (tuinghpwan:) — hurricane in the Pacific
• Catalan: tifó — hurricane in the Pacific
• Chinese Cantonese: 颱風 /台风 (toi4 fung1) — hurricane in the Pacific
• Eastern Min Chinese: 風颱 /风台 (hŭng-tăi) — hurricane in the Pacific
• Hakka Chinese: 颱風 /台风 (thòi-fûng) — hurricane in the Pacific
• Hakka Chinese: 風搓 /风搓 (fûng-chhâi) — hurricane in the Pacific
• Chinese: 風颱 /风台 (zh-min-nan) — hurricane in the Pacific
• Chinese Mandarin: 颱風 /台风 (táifēng) — hurricane in the Pacific
• Wu Chinese: 颱風 /台风 — hurricane in the Pacific
• Czech: tajfun — hurricane in the Pacific
• Danish: taifun — hurricane in the Pacific
• Danish: tyfon — hurricane in the Pacific
• Dutch: tyfoon — hurricane in the Pacific
• Dutch: taifoen — hurricane in the Pacific
• Esperanto: tajfuno — hurricane in the Pacific
• Estonian: taifuun — hurricane in the Pacific
• Finnish: taifuuni — hurricane in the Pacific
• French: typhon — hurricane in the Pacific
• Georgian: ტაიფუნი (ṭaipuni) — hurricane in the Pacific
• German: Taifun — hurricane in the Pacific
• Greek: τυφώνας (tyfónas) — hurricane in the Pacific
• Hebrew: טיפון (tifun) — hurricane in the Pacific
• Hindi: आंधी (āndhī) — hurricane in the Pacific
• Hindi: तूफ़ान (tūfān) — hurricane in the Pacific
• Hindi: चक्रवात (cakravāt) — hurricane in the Pacific
• Hungarian: tájfun — hurricane in the Pacific
• Icelandic: fellibylur — hurricane in the Pacific
• Ido: tifono — hurricane in the Pacific
• Indonesian: topan — hurricane in the Pacific
• Indonesian: taifun — hurricane in the Pacific
• Interlingua: typhon — hurricane in the Pacific
• Irish: tíofún — hurricane in the Pacific
• Italian: tifone — hurricane in the Pacific
• Japanese: 台風 (taifū) — hurricane in the Pacific
• Japanese: 颱風 (taifū) — hurricane in the Pacific
• Kanakanabu: sooraru — hurricane in the Pacific
• Kankanaey: pewek — hurricane in the Pacific
• Kankanaey: lemlem — hurricane in the Pacific
• Kannada: ಬಿರುಗಾಳಿ ಮಳೆ (birugāḷi maḷe) — hurricane in the Pacific
• Kavalan: banged — hurricane in the Pacific
• Kazakh: тайфун (taifun) — hurricane in the Pacific
• Kazakh: дауыл (dauyl) — hurricane in the Pacific
• Khmer: (ព្យុះ)ទីហ្វុង — hurricane in the Pacific
• Korean: 태풍 (taepung) — hurricane in the Pacific
• Kyrgyz: тайфун (tayfun) — hurricane in the Pacific
• Lao: ພາຍຸໄຕ້ຝຸ່ນ (phtai fun) — hurricane in the Pacific
• Lao: ໄຕ້ຝຸ່ນ (tai fun) — hurricane in the Pacific
• Latin: typhonas — hurricane in the Pacific
• Latvian: taifūns — hurricane in the Pacific
• Lithuanian: taifūnas — hurricane in the Pacific
• Macedonian: тајфун (tajfun) — hurricane in the Pacific
• Malay: taufan — hurricane in the Pacific
• Malayalam: ചുഴലിക്കാറ്റ് (cuḻalikkāṟṟŭ) — hurricane in the Pacific
• Malayalam: കൊടുങ്കാറ്റ് (koṭuṅkāṟṟŭ) — hurricane in the Pacific
• Māori: haumātakataka — hurricane in the Pacific
• Māori: huripari — hurricane in the Pacific
• Maranao: barat — hurricane in the Pacific
• Mongolian: хар салхи (xar salxi) — hurricane in the Pacific
• Norwegian: taifun — hurricane in the Pacific
• Norwegian: tyfon — hurricane in the Pacific
• Paiwan: raljiz — hurricane in the Pacific
• Pannonian Rusyn: тайфун (tajfun) — hurricane in the Pacific
• Persian: طوفان (tufân) — hurricane in the Pacific
• Polish: tajfun — hurricane in the Pacific
• Portuguese: tufão — hurricane in the Pacific
• Puyuma: bariwan — hurricane in the Pacific
• Romanian: taifun — hurricane in the Pacific
• Rukai: valrigi — hurricane in the Pacific
• Russian: тайфу́н (tajfún) — hurricane in the Pacific
• Saaroa: pariavaratʉ — hurricane in the Pacific
• Saisiyat: ba꞉yoS — hurricane in the Pacific
• Sakizaya: baliyus — hurricane in the Pacific
• Serbo-Croatian: тајфун — hurricane in the Pacific
• Serbo-Croatian: tajfun — hurricane in the Pacific
• Sinhalese: ටයිෆූන් (ṭayifūn) — hurricane in the Pacific
• Slovak: tajfun — hurricane in the Pacific
• Slovene: tajfun — hurricane in the Pacific
• Southern Altai: тайфун (tayfun) — hurricane in the Pacific
• Spanish: tifón — hurricane in the Pacific
• Swahili: taifuni — hurricane in the Pacific
• Swedish: tyfon — hurricane in the Pacific
• Tagalog: bagyo — hurricane in the Pacific
• Tajik: тӯфон (tüfon) — hurricane in the Pacific
• Tamil: சூறாவளி (cūṟāvaḷi) — hurricane in the Pacific
• Taroko: bgihur paru — hurricane in the Pacific
• Taroko: bohu — hurricane in the Pacific
• Taroko: sbgihur paru — hurricane in the Pacific
• Tausug: hunus — hurricane in the Pacific
• Telugu: తుఫాను (tuphānu) — hurricane in the Pacific
• Thai: ไต้ฝุ่น (dtâi-fùn) — hurricane in the Pacific
• Thao: shiraus — hurricane in the Pacific
• Tibetan: མཚོ་རླུང (mtsho rlung) — hurricane in the Pacific
• Tsou: cmoehu — hurricane in the Pacific
• Turkish: tayfun — hurricane in the Pacific
• Turkmen: taýfun — hurricane in the Pacific
• Ukrainian: тайфу́н (tajfún) — hurricane in the Pacific
• Urdu: طوفان (tūfān) — hurricane in the Pacific
• Uyghur: سەھنە ئىستىلى (sehne istili) — hurricane in the Pacific
• Uzbek: tayfun — hurricane in the Pacific
• Vietnamese: bão — hurricane in the Pacific
• Welsh: teiffŵn — hurricane in the Pacific
• Yami: angin — hurricane in the Pacific
• Yami: kakawan — hurricane in the Pacific
• Yiddish: טײַפֿון (tayfun) — hurricane in the Pacific
• Zhuang: rumzhwx — hurricane in the Pacific