Monsoon

Pronunciation

• RP IPA: /mÉ’nˈsuːn/
• Rhymes: -uːn

Origin

From Arabic موسم (mausim, "season"), from وسم (wásama, "to mark#Verb"), through Portuguese monção and Dutch moesson.

The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition. 2000 Houghton Mifflin

A Dictionary of Urdu, classical Hindi, and English Platts.

Full definition of monsoon

Noun

1. Any of a number of winds associated with regions where most rain falls during a particular season.
2. Tropical rainy season when the rain lasts for several months with few interruptions.
• 2013-06-29, High and wet, Floods in northern India, mostly in the small state of Uttarakhand, have wrought disaster on an enormous scale. The early, intense onset of the monsoon on June 14th swelled rivers, washing away roads, bridges, hotels and even whole villages. Rock-filled torrents smashed vehicles and homes, burying victims under rubble and sludge.
3. The rains themselves.
4. Entire meteorological systems with such characteristics.