Word of the Day: squall

The word squall has appeared in 17 articles on NYTimes.com in the past year, including on Oct. 4 in “With His New Novel, Fredrik Backman Pulls Off a Hat Trick” by Mark Rotella:

Parents of youth hockey players sometimes joke that, thanks to the sport’s intense early-morning weekend schedule, we belong to the International Church of Hockey. And in “The Winners,” the third installment in the hockey-centric Beartown trilogy, Fredrik Backman takes competition, friendship, politics and town rivalry to appropriately biblical proportions.

The novel begins with a once-in-a-generation storm in the deep forests of the far reaches of northern Sweden, where the rival towns Beartown and Hed are pitted against each other — socially, economically and on the ice. The squall uproots trees, closes roads and destroys buildings, including Hed’s hockey rink, resulting in chaos and deaths in both towns. For the next week, the lives of firefighters, midwives, politicians, newspaper editors, businessmen, lawyers, Middle Eastern immigrants and hockey players collide in ways that will leave each character forever altered.

Daily Word Challenge

Can you correctly use the word squall in a sentence?

Based on the definition and example provided, write a sentence using today’s Word of the Day and share it as a comment on this article. It is most important that your sentence makes sense and demonstrates that you understand the word’s definition, but we also encourage you to be creative and have fun.

Then, read some of the other sentences students have submitted and use the “Recommend” button to vote for two original sentences that stand out to you.

If you want a better idea of how squall can be used in a sentence, read these usage examples on Vocabulary.com.

Students ages 13 and older in the United States and the United Kingdom, and 16 and older elsewhere, can comment. All comments are moderated by the Learning Network staff.

The Word of the Day is provided by Vocabulary.com. Learn more and see usage examples across a range of subjects in the Vocabulary.com Dictionary. See every Word of the Day in this column.