The noun clue refers to anything that serves to guide or direct in the solution of a problem or mystery: The clue led me to believe that it was Mr. Green in the billiard room! More generally, a clue is an idea or notion: I had no clue Mr. Green was planning a surprise party! The synonym inkling has a similar duality—it can refer to a slight suggestion or indication of something: They hadn’t given us an inkling of what was going to happen. Or to a vague notion or idea, that is, a slight understanding based on a hint or suggestion: They didn't have an inkling of how the new invention worked. Inkling, however, is used in a slightly more personal sense to talk about one’s intuition or what one suspects. In this way, inkling implies greater feeling or powers of intuition than the noun clue.

You can’t go wrong with the adjective stormy (stormy seas or a dark and stormy night) for describing things affected or characterized by a storm. Tempestuous is a valid synonym for stormy in this literal context (tempestuous ocean), as long as you’re aware that tempest is an old-fashioned, non-meteorological, literary word for “storm.” Tempestuous is more frequently used in its figurative sense of “turbulent or tumultuous,” and is a strong synonym for stormy’s figurative sense. Tempestuous is often used to describe relationships, as in a tempestuous marriage, full of passion and door-slamming. A difficult, unpredictable person prone to outbursts may themselves have a tempestuous personality. The word is also regularly called on to characterize social, political, and economic climates (the tempestuous years before the war).

Worsen and exacerbate both mean to make something bad worse, and they can be used interchangeably in many contexts. A physician might tell you that fatigue will worsen your symptoms, while a medical textbook would say that fatigue exacerbates the symptoms of a disease. Worsen is a grammatically looser verb, in that, unlike exacerbate, it can be used without an object: the weather worsened. However, it’s also a blunt instrument compared with exacerbate, whose exactness gives it a sharper edge. Exacerbate means specifically to increase the severity, bitterness, or violence of something that’s already a problem (exacerbate tensions). It comes from a Latin word meaning “harsh” or “bitter” in taste, which may be why, in contrast to the more gradual progression of worsening, the word exacerbate suggests a more immediate and intense effect.