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ENGLISH · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

snore.

To breathe during sleep with harsh, snorting noises caused by vibration of the soft palate.

5 characters1 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

verb/snɔː/Received-Pronunciation/snoɹ/General-American/sno(ː)ɹ//snoə/

  1. To breathe during sleep with harsh, snorting noises caused by vibration of the soft palate.

    ambitransitive
Where this word comes from

From Middle English snoren, fnoren (“to snore loudly; snort”), from Middle English snore, *fnore (“snore; snort”, noun), from Old English fnora (“snort; sneezing”), from Proto-Germanic *fnuzô, from Proto-Indo-European *pnew- (“to breathe; snort; sneeze”). Compare also Proto-West Germanic *snarkōn, Middle Low German snorren (“to drone”), Dutch snorren (“to hum, purr”). The change fn → sn in this word is regular, seen also in sneeze, from Middle English fnesen (see sneeze for more).

noun/snɔː/Received-Pronunciation/snoɹ/General-American/sno(ː)ɹ//snoə/

  1. The act of snoring, and the noise produced.

  2. An extremely boring person or event.

    informal
Where this word comes from

From Middle English snoren, fnoren (“to snore loudly; snort”), from Middle English snore, *fnore (“snore; snort”, noun), from Old English fnora (“snort; sneezing”), from Proto-Germanic *fnuzô, from Proto-Indo-European *pnew- (“to breathe; snort; sneeze”). Compare also Proto-West Germanic *snarkōn, Middle Low German snorren (“to drone”), Dutch snorren (“to hum, purr”). The change fn → sn in this word is regular, seen also in sneeze, from Middle English fnesen (see sneeze for more).

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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.