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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.


snowman British  
/ ˈsnəʊˌmæn /

noun

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

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms


Etymology

Origin of snowman

First recorded in 1820–30; snow + man


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:

Other possibilities: Cinderella Mac & Cheese, or Jet-Puffed marshmallows marketed with images of Olaf, Frozen’s snowman.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 21, 2026

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

For one concert I wrote a song in Russian about a snowman who put on so many clothes that he melted.

From BBC ● Feb. 2, 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

He gave the snowman another, more vigorous shake.

From "Franny and Zooey" by J. D. Salinger

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

In the winter, when it snowed, we'd build snowmen in one another's front yards.

From "I Will Always Write Back" by Caitlin Alifirenka and Martin Ganda

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