turbulence

English

Turbulent flow around an object.

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin turbulentia, or from turbulent +‎ -ence.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈtɜː.bjə.ləns/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈtɝ.bjə.ləns/

  • Audio (US)

    (file)

• Hyphenation: tur‧bu‧lens

Noun

turbulence (countable and uncountable, plural turbulences)

1. (uncountable) The state or fact of being turbulent or agitated; tempestuousness, disturbance.
   • 2008, Luo Ji, The Dark Forest‎^[1], →ISBN:

     Turbulence was everywhere, within every blade of grass, every drop of dew on a leaf, every cloud in the sky, and every star beyond. The turbulence was purposeless, but in huge quantities of purposeless turbulence, purpose took shape.

2. (uncountable) Disturbance in a gas or fluid, characterized by evidence of internal motion or unrest.
3. (uncountable, aviation) Specifically, a state of agitation or disturbance in the air which is disruptive to an aircraft.
4. (countable) An instance or type of such state or disturbance.
   • 2022 October 3, Kwasi Kwarteng, quotee, “Tory MPs plot to avert welfare squeeze after humiliating U-turns”, in The Guardian‎^[2]:

     In a brief and abashed Tory conference speech, Kwarteng admitted it had been a “tough day” – hours after rowing back on the tax cut for high earners. He said his economic plan had caused “a little turbulence”.

Derived terms

• clear-air turbulence
• turbulence energy
• wake turbulence

 

Related terms

• turbulent

Translations

disturbance in gas, fluid

• Armenian: մրրկային շարժում (mrrkayin šaržum)
• Azerbaijani: çalxantı, türbülans
• Belarusian: турбуле́нтнасць f (turbuljéntnascʹ)
• Bulgarian: турбулентност f (turbulentnost)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 湍流 (zh) (tuānliú), 紊流 (zh) (wěnliú), 亂流／乱流 (zh) (luànliú)

• Danish: turbulens c
• Dutch: turbulentie (nl)
• Finnish: turbulenssi (fi)
• French: turbulence (fr) f
• Galician: turbulencia f
• Georgian: ტურბულენტობა (ṭurbulenṭoba)
• German: Turbulenz (de) f
• Hungarian: turbulencia (hu)
• Italian: turbolenza (it)
• Japanese: 乱流 (ja) (らんりゅう, ranryū)
• Kazakh: турбуленттілік (turbulenttılık)
• Korean: 난기류 (ko) (nan'giryu), 난류 (ko) (nallyu)
• Kyrgyz: турбуленттүүлүк (turbulenttüülük)
• Malay: gelora, pergolakan (ms), turbulens
• Malayalam: അന്തരീക്ഷവിക്ഷോഭം (antarīkṣavikṣōbhaṁ)
• Maori: puahiri (refers to waves in a storm)
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: turbulens m

  Nynorsk: turbulens m

• Persian: آشفتگی (fa)
• Portuguese: turbulência (pt) f
• Romanian: tulburare (ro) f, turbulență (ro) f
• Russian: турбуле́нтность (ru) f (turbuléntnostʹ), турбуле́нция f (turbuléncija)
• Spanish: turbulencia (es) f
• Swedish: turbulens (sv)
• Tajik: oşuftagī
• Tamil: கொந்தளிப்பு ஓட்டம் (kontaḷippu ōṭṭam)
• Ukrainian: турбуле́нтність f (turbuléntnistʹ)
• Vietnamese: dòng chảy rối (𣳔𬈰𦇒)

See also

• mechanical turbulence
• thermal turbulence

French

Pronunciation

• Audio

  (file)

Noun

turbulence f (plural turbulences)

1. turbulence

Further reading

• “turbulence”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.