tropical cyclone: Meaning and Definition of

trop'ical cy'clone

Pronunciation: [key]
  1. a cyclone that originates over a tropical ocean area and can develop into the destructive storm known in the U.S. as a hurricane, in the western Pacific region as a typhoon, and elsewhere by other names. Cf.(def. 1),
Random House Unabridged Dictionary, Copyright © 1997, by Random House, Inc., on Infoplease.