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Hurricanes, tropical cyclones, and typhoons are large tropical storms with sustained winds over 75 mph (119km/h). In the northeast Pacific and North Atlantic they are called Hurricanes and tracked and named by the US National Hurricane Center. Large storms in the Northwest Pacific (west of the international date line) are called Typhoons and tracked and named by Japan’s Typhoon Centre using names contributed from many East Asian countries.
Large storms south of the equator are called Tropical Cyclones (which is also the catch-all name for any of the 3 types). There are several regional weather organizations. In most of the Indian Ocean, India does the naming. Australia and Fiji split much of the South Pacific.
Brazil tracks storms in the South Atlantic (although there has been only one tropical cyclone in the region).
So hurricanes, typhoons, and tropical cyclones are all the same thing. Very large storms many miles in diameter, with strong sustained winds, powered by warm ocean currents and spun up by the the coriolis effect. The highest sustained winds recorded were 215 mph (345km/h)
Tornadoes are a completely different phenomenon. Tornadogenesis is subject to ongoing research, but they arise out of thunderstorms. Most of them are small and weak, a few may be a few miles or kilometers wide. They can have winds up to 301mph (484km/h).
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