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rain

nounverbverbcommon in dialogue

  • Canada//ˈɹeɪn//
  • Australia//ˈɹæɪn//
  • Scotland//ˈɾen//

Condensed water falling from a cloud.

noun

  1. 1

    Condensed water falling from a cloud.

    We've been having a lot of rain lately.

    The rains came late that year.

    This process involves cloud seeding – when various substances are put into clouds in an attempt to cause rain.

  2. 2

    figurativeAny matter moving or falling, usually through air, and especially if liquid or otherwise figuratively identifiable with raindrops.

  3. 3

    figurativeAn instance of particles or larger pieces of matter moving or falling through air.

    A rain of mortar fire fell on our trenches.

Etymology

Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *Hréǵʰ-der. Proto-Indo-European *Hréǵʰnos? Proto-Germanic *regną Proto-West Germanic *regn Old English reġn Middle English reyn English rain Inherited from Middle English reyn, rein, from Old English reġn, from Proto-West Germanic *regn, from Proto-Germanic *regną, of uncertain origin. Possibly from pre-Germanic *Hréǵ-no-, from Proto-Indo-European *Hreǵ- (“to flow”), although the consonant reflexes don't match. Cognates Cognate with Yola rhyne, ryne (“rain”), North Frisian Riin, rin (“rain”), Saterland Frisian Rien (“rain”), West Frisian rein (“rain”), Dutch regen (“rain”), Limburgish raenger, Rään (“rain”), German Low German Regen, Ręgen, Rägen (“rain”), Luxembourgish Reen (“rain”), German Regen (“rain”), Mòcheno reng (“rain”), Vilamovian raan (“rain”), Alemannic German regu, räge, rägä (“rain”), Bavarian Regn, rein (“rain”), Cimbrian regan, réego, reng (“rain”), Yiddish רעגן (regn, “rain”), Danish, Faroese, Icelandic, Norwegian Bokmål, Norwegian Nynorsk, and Swedish regn (“rain”), Crimean Gothic reghen (“rain”), Gothic 𐍂𐌹𐌲𐌽 (rign, “rain”).

verb

  1. 1

    To have rain fall from the sky.

    Judging by the black cloud, it will rain later today.

  2. 2

    figurativeTo fall as or like rain.

    Tears rained from her eyes.

    Leaves rained from the tree.

    Bombs rained from the sky.

    The rain it raineth every day.

  3. 3

    figurativeTo issue (something) in large quantities.

    The boxer rained punches on his opponent's head.

    Generous to a fault, they positively rained gifts on all their friends.

    Reporters rained questions on the beleaguered police chief.

Etymology

From Middle English reinen, from Old English reġnian, from Proto-West Germanic *regnōn, from Proto-Germanic *regnōną, from *regną (“rain”), as above. Cognates Cognate with Cimbrian règhenan, rengen (“to rain”), Dutch regenen (“to rain”), German regnen (“to rain”), Limburgish raengere, rääne (“to rain”), Low German regen (“to rain”), Luxembourgish reenen (“to rain”), Yiddish רעגענען (regenen, “to rain”), Danish, Norwegian Bokmål regne (“to rain”), Faroese, Swedish regna (“to rain”), Icelandic rigna (“to rain”), Norwegian Nynorsk regna, regne (“to rain”).

verb

  1. 1

    Variant of reignobsoleteObsolete form of reign.

    Such wondrous science in mans witt to rain.

Forms

plural
rains
past tense
rained
past participle
rained
present participle
raining
third person singular
rains
The neighbouring pagesAlphabetical order follows the rules of the language, not byte values: an accent decides only between two otherwise identical words, and Spanish files Ñ as a letter of its own.

Lexical content from Wiktionary, under CC BY-SA 4.0 · Source entry · Data version 2026-08-23

Rank among the words of the OpenSubtitles 2018 corpus — film and television subtitles, so spoken rather than written usage (CC BY-SA 3.0).