snowman

American  

[snoh-man] / ˈsnoʊˌmæn /

noun

snowmen plural

1. a figure of a person made of packed snow.

2. Slang.

   1. the numeral eight.

      They retired Ripken’s number in 2001, so no Oriole will again wear that snowman on his back.

   2. Golf. a score of eight strokes on any individual hole.

      I blew it on the ninth hole—still can’t believe I made the dreaded snowman.

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snowman British  

/ ˈsnəʊˌmæn /

noun

1. a figure resembling a man, made of packed snow

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Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• snowmen
  plural

Etymology

Origin of snowman

First recorded in 1820–30; snow + man

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

snowman snowmen

Instead of colliding violently, the two bodies gently come into contact and fuse, preserving their rounded shapes and creating the familiar snowman form.

From Science Daily ● Feb. 23, 2026

But closer inspection reveals a disturbing array of figures including people with warped faces, a snowman with strange facial features, and dogs with the heads of birds all bizarrely splashing through water.

From Barron's ● Nov. 19, 2025

“She was like, ‘I don’t like the way that snowman looks.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 3, 2025

Meanwhile, the pub manager has taught Paul Wright, an Australian on a three-week holiday in the UK, how to make his first snowman.

From BBC ● Jan. 7, 2025

So she decided to keep the snowman part to herself.

From "Case of the Sneaky Snowman: Nancy Drew and the Clue Crew, #5" by Carolyn Keene

For decades, astronomers have tried to understand why so many icy bodies in the outer solar system resemble snowmen, with two rounded sections joined together.

From Science Daily ● Feb. 23, 2026

Many people took the opportunity to build snowmen and enjoy a day of sledging, transforming hills across the country into tobogganing slopes.

From BBC ● Jan. 9, 2026

Through Elmer, we considered the white of snowmen and the purple of scarves; the pink of strawberry ice lollies and the red of sunsets.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jan. 1, 2026

Svitlana Yakovleva tightly held her two grandchildren, Myroslava, 6, and Yevgen, 8, as they watched snowmen perform a choreographed rendition of a holiday mash-up.

From Barron's ● Dec. 23, 2025

I know what they will draw: skipping ropes, jolly snowmen, listening to the radio, playing with a dog.

From "Cat's Eye" by Margaret Atwood