What is the meaning of pluviophile?

Well, according to the Urban Dictionary and 778,000 search results on Google - a pluviophile is someone who loves the rain!

The most common definition is a lover of rain, or someone that finds joy and peace of mind during rainy days. I’m not sure it has yet graduated to an official word in the English language though it has had the status of “pending investigation” as a new word suggestion on the Collins Dictionary website since 2014 - so here’s hoping!

According to the internet at least, people that love rain are called pluviophiles. The word pluviophile comes from the Latin word for rain “pluvial,” and “phile,” which denotes a person who has a fondness for a thing.

My theory is that we were essentially all born pluviophiles - many of us grow to dislike rainy days as adults though many of us still find joy in them, feeling comfort and a sense of wonder when the heavens open up.

I think everyone can remember the joy of playing in the rain as a child. Whilst parents would be seeking shelter, children are out playing in the rain, jumping in puddles, or walking along the footpath with one foot intentionally in the gutter for the wonderful splash with each step.

One of my favourite memories as a child was the sound of rain falling on our tent when we went camping. The rainy days when I was on holiday with my family were some of the best - it just added to the adventure when we huddled together around a campfire on a rainy evening and there was nothing like snuggling up in your sleeping bag and listening to the pitter patter of rain drops slowly increasing in number and volume against our canvas tent. The sound was just magical.

There are so many different rhythms and texture to rain whether it be gentle rain falling against your window or against your car when driving in the rain, or the sound of rain falliing on leaves or an umbrella when caught in a rainstorm.

If you’re like me and find yourself rushing to the window at the sound of thunder or feeling totally safe and relaxed warm in your bed with the sound of steady rain against your bedroom window - then you’re definately a pluviophile, and even better you’ve come to the right place :)

At pluviophile.com we try to capture the glorious sound of rain that you can listen to regardless of the forecast. I’ve tried many sleep tracks on YouTube to help clear my mind of thoughts and relax so I can fall gently asleep and I keep coming back to nature - back to the pitter patter of rain filling my headphones.

If you are interested in listening to some of our recordings you can visit our YouTube Channel. We plan to make new recordings each month and are experimenting with ambisonic spatial sound recordings using 4 microphones to create a fully immersive binarual experience so you feel like you’re right in the middle of the action. We also only create genuine recordings of nature unlike many other recordings which loop sound effects or try to create an 3D audio experience artifically. Mother nature provides all of the immersion for you and there’s nothing quite like listening to the real thing.

I’ll talk more about ambisonic and binaural audio in a future post and how it differs from regular stereo recordings.

If you’ve read this far - welcome to the pluviophile club and please enjoy the sound of a 3D thunderstorm to help you sleep, relax or study.