LATIN DICTIONARYLexicon Latīnum
English → Latin

“rain” in Latin

Riddle & Arnold A Copious and Critical English–Latin Lexicon, 1864

rain s.
pluvia (as a beneficial natural phenomenon): imber (a shower): nimbus (of rain attended with cloudy weather; aquae coelestes is poetical). A drizzling rain, pluvia tenuissima: a sudden shower of rain, pluvia repentina; imber repente effusus; imber subitus: heavy rains, aquae magnae (Liv.): heavy and continued rains, imbres magni et assidui: we shall have rain, imbres imminent: nubilatur or nubilare coepit: we shall have rain today, hodie pluet: the rains have swelled the river, aqua pluendo crescit: the rain beats against my face, imber in os fertur: the rain does not cease, imber non remittit (Vid: Liv., 40, 33): the rain comes through the roof, ex imbribus aqua perpluit; tectum imbres transmittit (Vid: Rlinius, 18, 11, 29): much rain fell that year, aquas magnae et ingentes eo anno fuerunt: during the rain, in imbri per imbrem; dum pluit.
rain v.
pluere (for the most part only in the third person, personally and impersonally, pluit, “it rains,” etc., PROP. and figuratively); imber or nimbus effunditur: it rains such a thing, such a thing comes down in rain (stones, blood, etc.), res, re, or rem pluit; e.g., sanguine, lacte, lapidibus, etc., pluit, terra pluit, terram pluit, also, imber lapidum, sanguinis, etc., defluit; and de caelo lapidat; imbri lapidat: it rained all night, imber continens per totam noctem tenuit: it never rained more heavily in those parts, numquam illis locis majores aquae fuerunt (Caes.). PROV., it never rains but it pours, malum malo additur (after Liv., 1, 3): it is constantly raining, or rains without any cessation, continuos or assiduos (less strong) habemus imbres.

Quick answer

What is the Latin word for rain?
The usual Latin words for “rain” are pluvia, imber, nimbus; also nūbilō, pluō, lac. The right choice depends on the sense; see the distinctions below.

Entry from J. E. Riddle & T. K. Arnold, A Copious and Critical English–Latin Lexicon (rev. C. Anthon, New York: Harper, 1864), digitised by Fergus J. P. Walsh, CC BY-SA 4.0; Latin markup adapted by latindictionary.co.