A tempest is a violent storm with powerful winds and often heavy rain, thunder, and lightning. When sailors spot dark clouds gathering and the sea turning wild, they know a tempest is coming. The word suggests something more dramatic than an ordinary rainstorm: a tempest is nature at its most fierce and dangerous.

Shakespeare used this word for the title of his famous play The Tempest, which opens with a ship caught in a terrifying storm. For centuries, tempests have threatened sailors, destroyed ships, and forced people to respect the raw power of the weather.

The word can also describe any situation that feels as chaotic and overwhelming as a storm. When a small disagreement suddenly explodes into shouting and accusations, someone might call it a tempest. If your school erupts in drama over something relatively minor, you might hear the phrase a tempest in a teapot, meaning a big fuss over something small. Just as a storm eventually passes, emotional tempests usually calm down too, though they can feel overwhelming while they're happening.