somniferous

[som-nif-er-uhs, suhm-]

adjective

1. bringing or inducing sleep, as drugs or influences.

somniferous

/ sɒmˈnɪfərəs /

adjective

1. rare,  tending to induce sleep

Other Word Forms

• somniferously adverb

Word History and Origins

Origin of somniferous¹

1595–1605; < Latin somnifer inducing sleep ( somni-, combining form of somnus sleep + -fer -fer ) + -ous

Word History and Origins

Origin of somniferous¹

C17: from Latin somnifer (from somnus sleep + ferre to do) + _-ous

Example Sentences

Everyone was back in the Dolby Theatre, a welcome return after last year’s somniferous experiment from Steven Soderbergh, which was held in Los Angeles’s Union Station.

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Still, it’s a somniferous situation for the photographers, who camp out in their cars for hours at a time for a few seconds of activity.

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Outfitted in squiggly patterned linens by Dusen Dusen, a Brooklyn designer, the bed was somniferously comfortable but seemed smaller than the advertised king size.

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There is a bristly-bearded tailor too, very beery, having his last pint, who utters a similar somniferous intention.

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The princess, put to sleep by Horpyna with a decoction of somniferous herbs, did not wake; her eyelids merely trembled a little from the light of the torch.

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