sleet

American  

[sleet] / slit /

noun

1. precipitation in the form of ice pellets created by the freezing of rain as it falls (distinguished from hail).

2. glaze.

3. Chiefly British. a mixture of rain and snow.

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verb (used without object)

• sleets,
  present (3rd person singular)
• sleeted,
  past participle,  past
• sleeting
  present participle

1. to send down sleet.

2. to fall as or like sleet.

sleet British  

/ sliːt /

noun

1. partly melted falling snow or hail or (esp US) partly frozen rain

2. the thin coat of ice that forms when sleet or rain freezes on cold surfaces

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verb

1. (intr) to fall as sleet

sleet Scientific  

/ slēt /

1. Precipitation that falls to earth in the form of frozen or partially frozen raindrops, often when the temperature is near the freezing point. Sleet usually leaves the cloud in the form of snow that melts as it passes through warm layers of air during its descent. The raindrops and partially melted snowflakes then freeze in the colder layers nearer the earth before striking the ground as pellets of ice, which usually bounce. By contrast, hail forms by the accumulation of layers of ice on the hailstone as it moves up and down in the cloud, and hailstones can become much larger than sleet pellets. The word sleet is also used informally to describe a mixture of snow, sleet, and rain.

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Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• sleety
  adjective

Inflected Forms

Participles

• sleeting
  present
• sleeted
  past

Conjugated Forms

Present

• sleet
  simple
• sleets
  simple
• have sleeted
  perfect
• has sleeted
  perfect
• am sleeting
  progressive
• are sleeting
  progressive
• is sleeting
  progressive
• have been sleeting
  perfect progressive
• has been sleeting
  perfect progressive

Past

• sleeted
  simple
• had sleeted
  perfect
• was sleeting
  progressive
• were sleeting
  progressive
• had been sleeting
  perfect progressive

Future

• will sleet
  simple
• will have sleeted
  perfect
• will be sleeting
  progressive
• will have been sleeting
  perfect progressive

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.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

sleet sleets sleeted sleeting

River’s constantly tilted forward, against rain, sleet and wind.

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 17, 2026

Stronger winds will bring wintry showers of sleet and snow over high ground in the north of the UK with the chance of accumulating snow on some hills and mountains.

From BBC ● Mar. 9, 2026

Meteorologists said to expect heavy snow, sleet and freezing rain.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jan. 25, 2026

It warns of “crippling ice and sleet to portions of the Southern Plains and Lower Mississippi Valley Friday.”

From Barron's ● Jan. 22, 2026

While we’re inside, the snow turns to sleet.

From "Cat's Eye" by Margaret Atwood

As yet the trembling year is unconfirmed, And winter oft, at eve, resumes the breeze, Chills the pale morn, and bids his driving sleets Deform the day delightful:---- Thomson.

From The Headsman The Abbaye des Vignerons by James Fenimore Cooper

Here the first winter sleets and snows fall and lie, and here the spring frost lingers last unthawed.

From Jude the Obscure by Thomas Hardy

Stinging sleets, biting winds, desperately fatigued horses, valiant and persistent battles with snow drifts, icy cold temperatures and everything pertaining to heroism in the Arctics were there.

From Mixed Faces by Roy Norton

The heavens have emptied their sleets and snows on his head,—these have made him look only purer, only the more sublime.

From The Choir Invisible by James Lane Allen

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

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

Yet without a second glance at the ice-covered waters, he followed his companions along the narrow walk of sleeted planks that ran out alongside the service-track.

From Out of the Primitive by Robert Ames Bennet

The dividing line between snow and rain still was heavily marked, but it sleeted and our hands were quite numbed.

From The Luck of Thirteen Wanderings and Flight through Montenegro and Serbia by Cora Gordon

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

Also, aside from anecdotal evidence of short-lived sleeting in the western suburbs, there was no ice, snow or other frozen precipitation.

From Washington Post ● Dec. 10, 2022

“It was raining, sleeting and snowing and I was out getting feed,” he said.

From Washington Times ● Apr. 9, 2015

And now it was sleeting, the snow already glistening with ice.

From "The Dead and the Gone" by Susan Beth Pfeffer

Related Words

• deluge
• drizzle
• flood
• hail
• mist
• monsoon
• precipitation
• rainfall
• rainstorm
• shower
• showers
• stream
• torrent