tumultuous

Etymology

It is borrowed from Old French tumultuous, modern tumultueux,^[2][3][4][5] and partly or directly borrowed from Latin tumultuōsus (“full of bustle or confusion, turbulent”);^{[2][4][6][7][8]} Merriam-Webster and Dictionary.com give only the Latin.^[6][7] The Latin adjective is formed from tumultus, the source of tumult, with the suffix -ōsus.^[6][8][7] The OED derives tumultus from tumeō (“to swell”);^[2] Etymonline calls it related to that verb, from Proto-Indo-European *teue- (“to swell”).^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

Full of commotion; disorderly and noisy: 1548, in Hall's Union.^[2][6] Etymonline also dates it to the 1540s.^[3]

Semantic evolution

From 1576 it described people acting in a disorderly, riotous way,^[2] and in the early 17th century also what stirred up tumult (seditious) or caused disquiet, senses now obsolete.^[2] Milton in Paradise Lost (1667) applied it both to violent physical motion, a tumultuous cloud, and to a troubled mind, a tumultuous breast;^[2][9] Johnson (1755) quoted both lines, and also defined it as "carried on by disorderly multitudes".^[9] Today it is often used of noisy enthusiasm, as in tumultuous applause.^[6][10]

Timeline

• 1548 – full of commotion; disorderly and noisy.^[2][6]
• 1576 – of people, acting riotously.^[2]
• 1604 – causing disquiet (obsolete after 1614).^[2]
• before 1617 – seditious (obsolete).^[2]
• 1667 – of physical forces, violently agitated; of emotions, troubled, in Milton.^[2]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Loud, excited and uproarious: The team returned to a tumultuous welcome.^[10][6]
2. Full of turmoil or confusion; turbulent: the tumultuous last months of the war.^[10][6][2]
3. Greatly agitated or disturbed in mind: tumultuous feelings.^[10][2]
4. Making a noisy, unruly disturbance; riotous.^[10][2]

Word family

• tumultuously
• tumultuousness
• untumultuous

Related words

• tumult
• tumulus
• tumultuary

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ a b c d e f g h Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
7. ^ a b c Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
8. ^ a b Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
9. ^ a b Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
10. ^ a b c d e Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins