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• snow
  snow

  noun

  precipitation in the form of ice crystals, mainly of intricately branched, hexagonal form and often agglomerated into snowflakes, formed directly from the freezing of the water vapor in the air.
• Snow
  Snow

  noun

  Sir Charles Percy C. P. Snow, 1905–80, English novelist and scientist.

snow

¹ American  

[snoh] / snoʊ /

noun

• snow
  plural

1. Meteorology. precipitation in the form of ice crystals, mainly of intricately branched, hexagonal form and often agglomerated into snowflakes, formed directly from the freezing of the water vapor in the air.

2. these flakes as forming a layer on the ground or other surface.

3. the fall of these flakes or a storm during which these flakes fall.

4. something resembling a layer of these flakes in whiteness, softness, or the like.

   the snow of fresh linen.

5. Literary.

   1. white blossoms.

   2. the white color of snow.

6. Slang. cocaine or heroin.

7. Informal. Usually snows snow tires.

   Most people up here keep their snows on through the end of April.

8. white spots or bands on a television screen caused by a weak signal.

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verb (used without object)

• snows,
  present (3rd person singular)
• snowed,
  past participle,  past
• snowing
  present participle

1. to send down snow; fall as snow.

2. to descend like snow.

verb (used with object)

• snows,
  present (3rd person singular)
• snowed,
  past participle,  past
• snowing
  present participle

1. to let fall as or like snow.

2. Slang.

   1. to make an overwhelming impression on.

      The view really snowed them.

   2. to persuade or deceive.

      She was snowed into believing everything.

verb phrase

1. snow under

   1. to cover with or bury in snow.

   2. to overwhelm with a larger amount of something than can be conveniently dealt with.

   3. to defeat overwhelmingly.

Snow ² American  

[snoh] / snoʊ /

noun

1. Sir Charles Percy C. P. Snow, 1905–80, English novelist and scientist.

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Snow ¹ British  

/ snəʊ /

noun

1. C ( harles ) P ( ercy ), Baron. 1905–80, British novelist and physicist. His novels include the series Strangers and Brothers (1949–70)

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snow ² British  

/ snəʊ /

noun

1. precipitation from clouds in the form of flakes of ice crystals formed in the upper atmosphere

2. a layer of snowflakes on the ground

3. a fall of such precipitation

4. anything resembling snow in whiteness, softness, etc

5. the random pattern of white spots on a television or radar screen, produced by noise in the receiver and occurring when the signal is weak or absent

6. slang cocaine

7. See carbon dioxide snow

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verb

1. (intr; with it as subject) to be the case that snow is falling

2. (tr; usually passive, foll by over, under, in, or up) to cover or confine with a heavy fall of snow

3. to fall or cause to fall as or like snow

4. slang (tr) to deceive or overwhelm with elaborate often insincere talk See snow job

5. to be overwhelmed, esp with paperwork

snow Scientific  

/ snō /

1. Precipitation that falls to earth in the form of ice crystals that have complex branched hexagonal patterns. Snow usually falls from stratus and stratocumulus clouds, but it can also fall from cumulus and cumulonimbus clouds.

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snow Idioms  

More idioms and phrases containing snow

• pure as the driven snow

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Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• snowless
  adjective
• snowlike
  adjective

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• snow
  plural

Participles

• snowing
  present
• snowed
  past

Conjugated Forms

Present

• snow
  simple
• snows
  simple
• have snowed
  perfect
• has snowed
  perfect
• am snowing
  progressive
• are snowing
  progressive
• is snowing
  progressive
• have been snowing
  perfect progressive
• has been snowing
  perfect progressive

Past

• snowed
  simple
• had snowed
  perfect
• was snowing
  progressive
• were snowing
  progressive
• had been snowing
  perfect progressive

Future

• will snow
  simple
• will have snowed
  perfect
• will be snowing
  progressive
• will have been snowing
  perfect progressive

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Etymology

Origin of snow¹

First recorded before 900; Middle English noun snou(e), Old English snāw; cognate with Dutch sneeuw, German Schnee, Old Norse snǣr, Gothic snaiws, Latin nix (genitive nivis ), Greek níps (accusative nípha ), Old Church Slavonic sněgŭ; verb derivative of the noun

Origin of Snow²

First recorded in 1665–75

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Explanation

The fluffy white precipitation that falls from the sky in the winter is snow. Many winter sports, like skiing and sledding, require snow. Scientifically, snow is water vapor that freezes and forms ice crystals. You probably think of snow as the cold white stuff that can be formed into balls and thrown. Snow is a verb, too: "I love to watch it snow." Informally, to snow is also to hide your motives in order to trick someone: "She planned to snow her sister into thinking the cookies were all gone."

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

snow Snow snows snowed snowing

According to Pelto, the exposed surfaces on Vega Island and neighboring islands suggest that relatively little fresh snow accumulated over the winter.

From Science Daily ● Nov. 2, 2026

And while training together for the big summit push by climbing a lower peak in Nepal in 2022, Nelson loses her footing in an avalanche the size of a small snow drift.

From Salon ● Nov. 1, 2026

When the dusting of snow and ice thawed, 200 tribal citizens joined on the land for the tribe’s annual family reunion.

From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 31, 2026

"It saves probers hours and hours of standing shoulder to shoulder and poking in the snow, and also exposing themselves to secondary avalanche hazards," Ward said.

From BBC ● Oct. 30, 2026

We looked ahead to winter and snow on the ground.

From "The Teacher’s Funeral" by Richard Peck

Snow is like glacier food - and under stable conditions some of it would eventually compact into ice.

From BBC ● Oct. 1, 2026

According to Snow, the actor died around 11 p.m. in a Burbank assisted living facility.

From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 29, 2026

Snow drought and unusually warm conditions across the Colorado Basin in 2026 sharply reduced water flowing into major reservoirs across the U.S.

From Science Daily ● Sep. 23, 2026

Nina Snow, the novel’s heroine and conscience, is scarred by the Bosnian wars of the 1990s.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 16, 2026

“It’s a long story. Anyway, Snow White disappeared back at the end of the Great War, and no one’s heard from either her or the Wicked Queen since.”

From "Half Upon a Time" by James Riley

Paris — There’s a present-day answer to the question that was posed in verse by the French medieval poet and street brawler François Villon: “Where are the snows of yesteryear?”

From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 20, 2026

When it snows, for example, the city plows the streets, but property owners sometimes must clear the sidewalks.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 18, 2026

He is a solitary, trudging in his galoshes through the snows of West Hartford, Conn., on his way to work.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 16, 2026

Or as in the Northeast today, when it snows it blizzards.

From Barron's ● Feb. 24, 2026

“I don’t know, Tim, if it snows we ought to go the shortest way home, but I don’t like going back through Ridgebury.”

From "My Brother Sam is Dead" by James Lincoln Collier and Christopher Collier

“We were snowed in and iced in for three days at our house,” she said.

From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 18, 2026

Tuesday may sound a long way away but this time last week I would never have thought that this week we would still be snowed in.

From BBC ● Jan. 9, 2026

It had snowed seven inches the night before I decided to get gravy bread again — the most snow O’Hare had seen in a single day in decades.

From Salon ● Dec. 7, 2025

Although it snowed in Cleveland and Chicago this week and New Yorkers bundled up, gas traders don’t expect enough sustained cold weather to eat into supplies until next month.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 13, 2025

It snowed yesterday, and the trees are frosted with ice.

From "The Wrong Way Home" by Kate O’Shaughnessy

“It could rain, it could be snowing and we’ll still be open. I’ve been here for about 29 years, and I’ve never known this place to close. Not one day.”

From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 29, 2026

He runs five mornings a week year-round, even when it is snowing.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 4, 2026

Lime also faces a seasonal risk: Put simply, scooters and bikes are a lot less popular when its snowing or raining, and more in demand when it’s warm and dry outside.

From MarketWatch ● May 8, 2026

"It was a bit rough around the edges, but it was snowing quite a bit, so it covered up the mistakes."

From BBC ● Feb. 16, 2026

Our window faced an alley and the brick wall of the next building and it was so close to the adjoining building you couldn’t tell whether it was raining or snowing outside.

From "The Color of Water: A Black Man's Tribute to His White Mother" by James McBride

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Related Words

• blizzard
• snowstorm

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