hail: chunks of ice that fall from a storm sky, in the Bible almost always as a weapon God hurls in judgment
This is the ordinary word for hail, the ice that pelts down out of a violent storm. There is nothing exotic about the word itself; it names the same thing a modern weather report would.
What makes it stand out is how the Bible uses it. Hail is rarely just weather here. It is one of God's favorite instruments of judgment, sent to break the proud and rescue his people. The seventh plague on Egypt is the great example: hail mixed with fire that shatters crops, trees, and anyone caught outside (Exodus 9), while the land of Goshen stays untouched. At the battle of Gibeon the Lord throws down hailstones that kill more of the fleeing enemy than Israel's swords do (Joshua 10:11). The prophets and psalms keep this picture alive, listing hail among the stored-up weapons in God's arsenal (Job 38:22) and among the storm forces that answer his command (Psalm 148:8).
Because of that pattern, hail in Scripture carries a sense of sudden, overwhelming, and unmistakably aimed force. When Isaiah says hail will sweep away a refuge of lies (Isaiah 28:17), the physical picture and the threat of judgment are working together, but the word still means simply hail.