พายุ
storm
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- 1 storm
This is the general Thai word for a storm, especially a weather system with very strong winds and sometimes heavy rain or thunder.
storm
A severe weather event marked by strong winds, often accompanied by heavy rain or thunder.
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พายุทำให้ต้นไม้ล้ม phaayú tham hây tônmáay lóm The storm caused trees to fall. พายุทำให้ต้นไม้ล้ม details
Learning notes
Explanation
พายุ is a common, neutral noun for severe weather dominated by strong winds, sometimes with heavy rain or thunder. By itself, it broadly means “storm.” Adding another word identifies a particular kind, as in พายุฝนฟ้าคะนอง “thunderstorm” and พายุไต้ฝุ่น “typhoon.” The classifier ลูก is used when treating storms as individual weather systems: พายุหนึ่งลูก means “one storm,” and พายุลูกนี้ means “this storm.” The word can also be used metaphorically for an overwhelming rush of emotion, criticism, or hardship. Such uses are expressive extensions of the weather meaning rather than a separate everyday sense.
Usage
It is common in weather forecasts, news reports, and safety warnings about a storm’s formation, approach, path, or damage. In everyday speech, frequent patterns include พายุมา “a storm is coming,” พายุเข้า “a storm hits or moves in,” and พายุสงบ “the storm subsides.”
Caution
พายุ does not specifically mean “typhoon”; use พายุไต้ฝุ่น when that distinction matters. Ordinary rain is ฝน and ordinary wind is ลม, so พายุ is generally not used for mildly rainy or breezy weather.
Differences from similar words
1 storm synonyms
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มรสุม refers to a monsoon—a seasonal wind system and the rainy conditions it brings. พายุ is the broader word for an individual storm and is not limited to seasonal weather patterns.