sleet
Americannoun
verb (used without object)
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sleets,
present (3rd person singular)
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sleeted,
past participle, past
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sleeting
present participle
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to send down sleet.
-
to fall as or like sleet.
noun
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partly melted falling snow or hail or (esp US) partly frozen rain
-
the thin coat of ice that forms when sleet or rain freezes on cold surfaces
verb
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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sleetsimple
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sleetssimple
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have sleetedperfect
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has sleetedperfect
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am sleetingprogressive
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are sleetingprogressive
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is sleetingprogressive
-
have been sleetingperfect progressive
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has been sleetingperfect progressive
Past
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sleetedsimple
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had sleetedperfect
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was sleetingprogressive
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were sleetingprogressive
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had been sleetingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of sleet
First recorded in 1250–1300; (for the noun) Middle English slete; akin to Low German slote, German Schlossen “hail”; (for the verb) Middle English sleten, derivative of the noun
Explanation
Frozen rain, or melty snow, is called sleet. Walking in the snow can be lovely, but walking in sleet is just cold and unpleasant. Sleet is a type of precipitation, and it's also a verb: "Is it starting to sleet out there? Let's stay in and watch TV tonight." In the U.S., sleet is the name for small ice pellets—if you've ever heard the weather person talk about a "wintry mix," it usually includes sleet along with snow and freezing rain. The word dates from the very early 14th century, from a Germanic root.
Vocabulary lists containing sleet
Physical Geography - Introductory
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Weather and Climate - Introductory
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Physical Geography - Middle School
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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.
See Examples For:
Snow, sleet and occasional icy rains have frozen over to cover much of Berlin in thin slabs of ice, which hospitals report have led to a spike in falls and injuries.
From Barron's ● Feb. 5, 2026
The snow which had hammered down all day in the Dolomites had turned to sleet by the time the four matches started in front of a healthy crowd inside the 3,500-capacity arena.
From BBC ● Feb. 4, 2026
A massive winter storm continues to hit large parts of the country, dumping snow, sleet and freezing rain and leaving hundreds of thousands without power in the South.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jan. 31, 2026
Meteorologists said to expect heavy snow, sleet and freezing rain.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jan. 25, 2026
The sleet piled up and hid the trail.
From "Black Star, Bright Dawn" by Scott O'Dell
During the meal he had much to recount of other sleets and their consequences.
From The Reign of Law; a tale of the Kentucky hemp fields by James Lane Allen
How soon the blasts of March—the snowy sleets, May turn your hasty flight, to seek again Your wonted warm abodes.
From The Poets and Poetry of Cecil County, Maryland by Various
From January's start to close It rains or hails or sleets or snows.
From Punch, or the London Charivari, Volume 152, April 11, 1917 by Various
I have called in the aid of sleets and snows, have besieged him in his white castle behind the glittering array of his icicles with threats of starvation.
From A Kentucky Cardinal by James Lane Allen
Child of Light, the bright, the bird-like! wilt thou float and float to me, Facing winds and sleets and waters, flying glimpses of the sea?
From The Poems of Henry Kendall With Biographical Note by Bertram Stevens by Henry Kendall
It sleeted all morning, but the sun came out for the march.
From Science Magazine ● Apr. 21, 2017
“You’re being rained on and snowed on and sleeted on all day long. It makes for misery.”
From Washington Times ● Oct. 23, 2014
Sweated, froze, got sleeted on, rained on, snowed on, and never saw a deer.
From Time Magazine Archive
It rained, hailed, sleeted, snowed, and grew colder all the time.
From The Call of the Canyon by Zane Grey
The suffering in front of Dolinsburg was something almost indescribable—it snowed, sleeted, hailed and froze during the whole of the night.
From Uncle Daniel's Story Of "Tom" Anderson And Twenty Great Battles by John McElroy
It was one of those lousy late-fall New York evenings, cold and dark and sort of half raining and half sleeting.
From Slate ● Mar. 29, 2026
The temperature was little above freezing and it was sleeting, members of the team said at the time.
From BBC ● Sep. 9, 2023
The new commute started in November, a gray, sleeting month that was all the more dreary because the job in Stamford that I had enjoyed for two years had been moved to New York.
From New York Times ● Jul. 18, 2021
He added, “Go to a gas station in the middle of the winter, when it’s sleeting, and ask yourself how convenient it is.”
From Washington Post ● Aug. 10, 2018
And now it was sleeting, the snow already glistening with ice.
From "The Dead and the Gone" by Susan Beth Pfeffer
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