صَاعِقَةٌ

[A thunderbolt; i. e.] a thing descending from the thunder, that smites not anything but it alters it and burns it: (Msb:) or fire that falls from the sky, (AZ, S, O, K,) in vehement thunder: (AZ, S, O:) or fire that God sends with vehement thunder: (TA:) or the scourge (مِخْرَاق) that is in the hand of [the angel who is] the driver of the clouds, and that comes not upon anything but it burns it: (O, K:) or a vehement sound from a thundering with which falls a piece of fire: or the sound of thunder: (TA:) Wahb Ibn-Munebbih, being asked respecting it, whether it were a tangible thing or fire or what else, answered that he thought no one knew it except God: (O, TA:) according to some, (TA,) it signifies also the cry, or vehement cry, or shout, [that is an efficient] of punishment: (S, O, K:) and death; (O, K;) so according to Katádeh (O, TA) and Mukátil: (TA:) or a cause of death: (Zj, TA:) and any destructive punishment: (O, K:) and ↓ صَعْقَةٌ and صَاقِعَةٌ are dialect vars. thereof: (TA:) the plural is صَوَاعِقُ. (O, Msb, TA.)