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ENGLISH · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

adder.

Any snake.

5 characters2 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

noun/ˈædɚ/US
  1. Any snake.

    obsolete
  2. A name loosely applied to various snakes more or less resembling a viper. A small venomous serpent of the genus Vipera

    UK
  3. A name loosely applied to various snakes more or less resembling a viper. A small venomous serpent of the genus Vipera A common European adder (Vipera berus).

    UK
  4. A name loosely applied to various snakes more or less resembling a viper. A puff adder, of Africa (genus Bitis).

  5. A name loosely applied to various snakes more or less resembling a viper. Any of several small nonvenomous snakes resembling adders A milk snake (Lampropeltis triangulum).

    Canada · US
  6. A name loosely applied to various snakes more or less resembling a viper. Any of several small nonvenomous snakes resembling adders A hog-nosed snake, of genus Heterodon of harmless colubrid snakes found in North America

    Canada · US
  7. A name loosely applied to various snakes more or less resembling a viper. Certain venomous snakes resembling other adders Death adders (Acanthophis spp.), elapid snakes found in Southeast Asia and Australia

  8. A name loosely applied to various snakes more or less resembling a viper. Certain venomous snakes resembling other adders A northern copperhead (Agkistrodon contortrix mokasen), a venomous viper found in the eastern United States

  9. A sea stickleback or adder fish (Spinachia spinachia).

Where this word comes from

From Middle English nadder, addere, rebracketing of “a naddere” as “an addere”, from Old English nǣdre (“snake”), from Proto-West Germanic *nadrā, from Proto-Germanic *nadrǭ, from pre-Germanic *néh₁treh₂, variant of Proto-Indo-European *n̥h₁trih₂, from *(s)neh₁- (“to spin, twist”). See also West Frisian njirre, Dutch adder, German Natter, Otter; also Welsh neidr, Latin natrīx (“watersnake”), Dutch naaien.

noun/ˈædɚ/US
  1. Someone who or something which performs arithmetic addition; a machine for adding numbers.

  2. An electronic device that adds voltages, currents or frequencies.

  3. Something which adds or increases.

    They sought out cost adders with an eye toward eliminating them.
Where this word comes from

Etymology tree English add Proto-Indo-European *-yósder. Proto-Italic *-āzios Latin -āriusnom. Latin -āriusbor. Proto-Germanic *-ārijaz Proto-West Germanic *-ārī Old English -ere Middle English -ere English -er English adder From add + -er.

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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.

Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.