snark
1 Americannoun
verb (used without object)
noun
Etymology
Origin of snark1
First recorded in 1876; coined by Lewis Carroll in his poem The Hunting of the Snark
Origin of snark2
First recorded in 1910–15; dialectal snark “to nag, find fault with”; apparently identical with snark, snork “to snort, snore,” probably from Dutch, Low German snorken “to snore”
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.
All of it umbrella-ed by a title that invites Morelli-style snark.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 9, 2026
Though we hear him get hound-dogged by nosy questions from the press, the closest Elvis comes to snark is when he sits on a stool to play “Little Sister.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 19, 2026
Snappiness and snark are hallmarks of his earliest series, but eventually Tartakovsky realized that the barrage of dialogue allowed audiences to understand what was going on without feeling it.
From Salon ● Feb. 1, 2026
You’ll read snark from a body-for-squash nerd in a financial newspaper and think: When did The Wall Street Journal get a sports section?
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jan. 14, 2026
She could hear her mother’s thought quite distinctly, colored with some snark: the painting would have to know what it was before it could become real.
From "Pet" by Akwaeke Emezi
Random Word
Spin the wheel and learn a new word!
Get a wordDefinitions 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.
