Often referred to in Scripture (Job 40:9; Psalm 77:18; 104:7). James and John were called by our Lord "sons of thunder" (Mark 3:17). In Job 39:19, instead of "thunder," as in the Authorized Version, the Revised Version translates (ra'amah) by "quivering main" (marg., "shaking"). Thunder accompanied the giving of the law at Sinai (Exodus 19:16). It was regarded as the voice of God (Job 37:2; Psalm 18:13; 81:7; Comp. John 12:29). In answer to Samuel's prayer (1 Samuel 12:17, 18), God sent thunder, and "all the people greatly feared," for at such a season (the wheat-harvest) thunder and rain were almost unknown in Palestine.

Noah Webster's New International Dictionary of the English Language

1. (n.) The sound which follows a flash of lightning; the report of a discharge of atmospheric electricity.

2. (n.) The discharge of electricity; a thunderbolt.

3. (n.) Any loud noise; as, the thunder of cannon.

4. (n.) An alarming or startling threat or denunciation.

5. (n.) To produce thunder; to sound, rattle, or roar, as a discharge of atmospheric electricity; -- often used impersonally; as, it thundered continuously.

6. (n.) Fig.: To make a loud noise; esp. a heavy sound, of some continuance.

7. (n.) To utter violent denunciation.

8. (v. t.) To emit with noise and terror; to utter vehemently; to publish, as a threat or denunciation.