adjective
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covered with or abounding in snow
snowy hills
-
characterized by snow
snowy weather
-
resembling snow in whiteness, purity, etc
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Etymology
Origin of snowy
before 1000; Middle English snawy, Old English snāwig. See snow, -y 1
Explanation
Snowy things are covered with snow or resemble snow—like snowy rooftops in the winter or your grandpa's snowy beard that makes him look like Santa Claus. You can use snowy to describe the hills and fields in Vermont during your January visit, and also when you talk about the weather: "Next week looks snowy, but it's going to warm up after that." Things that are the brilliant white color of fresh snow are also snowy, like a swan's snowy feathers or your neighbor's snowy wall-to-wall carpet that you're not allowed to walk on.
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Already though, there’s been positive signs for the island foxes and the western snowy plover, a threatened shorebird that has a year-round population on Santa Rosa.
From Los Angeles Times • Jun. 10, 2026
One snowy evening 44 years earlier, Eddie drove off a steep country road with Daphne in the car.
From The Wall Street Journal • May 29, 2026
Up here, in a starkly beautiful landscape of snowy peaks and glaciers, excavators are carving huge chunks out of the mountains to mine for copper and other minerals.
From Barron's • May 23, 2026
In the communities nearby - bare homes scattered over barren, brown hills, set against the snowy peaks of the Siah Koh mountain range - the devastating impact of unemployment is clear.
From BBC • May 18, 2026
To our right, way in the distance, is a snowy valley.
From "Amari and the Night Brothers" by B.B. Alston
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
