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Capricious vs Tempest - What's the difference?

capricious | tempest |

As an adjective capricious

is impulsive and unpredictable; determined by chance, impulse, or whim.

As a noun tempest is

a storm, especially one with severe winds.

As a verb tempest is

(rare) to storm.

capricious

English

Adjective

(en adjective)
  • Impulsive and unpredictable; determined by chance, impulse, or whim
    • I almost died in a capricious winter storm.
    Stringent rulers are unlikely to act capriciously .
    The Mayor claimed that the action was reasonable, but in reality the action was arbitrary and capricious in nature.
  • *

    • Usage notes

    * Capricious can describe both a person and the decisions they make.

    Synonyms

    * whimsical * arbitrary

    Antonyms

    * conscientious * rigorous

    Derived terms

    * capriciously

    Related terms

    * caprice

    tempest

    English

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • A storm, especially one with severe winds.
  • * 1847 , (Herman Melville), Omoo: A Narrative of Adventures in the South Seas , ch. 16:
    • As every sailor knows, a spicy gale in the tropic latitudes of the Pacific is far different from a tempest in the howling North Atlantic.
  • *{{quote-book, year=1892, author=(James Yoxall)
    • , chapter=5, title= The Lonely Pyramid , passage=The desert storm was riding in its strength; the travellers lay beneath the mastery of the fell simoom.
  • Any violent tumult or commotion.
  • * 1914 , (Ambrose Bierce), "One Officer, One Man":
    • They awaited the word "forward"—awaited, too, with beating hearts and set teeth the gusts of lead and iron that were to smite them at their first movement in obedience to that word. The word was not given; the tempest did not break out.
  • (label) A fashionable social gathering; a drum.
    • (Smollett)

    Derived terms

    * tempest in a teapot * tempestuous

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • (rare) To storm.
  • (transitive, chiefly, poetic) To disturb, as by a tempest.
  • * 1667 , , Paradise Lost , Book VII:
    • . . . the seal
    And bended dolphins play; part huge of bulk,
    Wallowing unwieldy, enormous in their gait,
    Tempest the ocean.
  • * 1811 , , "The Drowned Lover," in Poems from St. Irvyne :
    • Oh! dark lowered the clouds on that horrible eve,
    And the moon dimly gleamed through the tempested air.

    References

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