Word.ws English Dictionary

sleet

/sliːt/

sleet noun: pellets of ice made of mostly-frozen raindrops or refrozen melted snowflakes.

sleet: pellets of ice made of mostly-frozen raindrops or refrozen melted snowflakes
Image: Famartin, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Noun

sleet (countable and uncountable, plural sleets)

  1. (US) Pellets of ice made of mostly-frozen raindrops or refrozen melted snowflakes.
    Synonyms:
    ice pellets
  2. (Ireland, Northeastern, UK, US) Precipitation in the form of a mixture of rain and snow.
    • Though it never really snows it’s more like horizontal sleet2007, “Is This Christmas?”, performed by The Wombats
  3. (rare) A smooth coating of ice formed on ground or other objects by freezing rain.
    Synonyms:
    black ice, glaze
  4. The part of a mortar extending from the chamber to the trunnions.

Verb

sleet (third-person singular simple present sleets, present participle sleeting, simple past and past participle sleeted)

  1. (impersonal) To be in a state in which sleet is falling.
    • I won't bother going out until it's stopped sleeting.
    • It was dark, it was cold, it was sleeting - dreadful conditions for driving... perfect conditions for an accident.2021 February 24, Greg Morse, “Great Heck: a tragic chain of events”, in RAIL, number 925, page 38

sleet meaning in Tamil, Urdu, Bengali and Kannada

sleet in Tamil

ஆலங்கட்டி மழை, ஆலங்கட்டு மழை, கல்மழை, சிலிதை, கல் மழை

sleet in Urdu

برف دار بارش, اولے دار بارش

sleet in Bengali

শিলাবৃষ্টি, তুষারমিশ্রিত বৃষ্টি

sleet in Kannada

ಮಂಜುಮಳೆ, ನೀರುಮಂಜು, ಹಿಮದಿಂದ ಕೂಡಿದ ಮಳೆ, ಆಲಿಕಲ್ಲು ಮಳೆ
More languagesFewer languages
sleet in Persian
برفباران

Examples of sleet in a sentence

  • It's sleeting. All the same, I'll take the dog out.
  • “It's sleeting cats and dogs.” Jellyneck's sneakers squished as he headed for the cloakroom, ignoring the question.
  • The weather was atrocious, with bitterly cold wind and cutting sleet—rather appropriate, considering Aunt Fonteyn's temperament.

All 10 example sentences with sleet

Synonyms of sleet

Forms of sleet

Noun
pluralsleets
Verb
third-person singular presentsleets
present participlesleeting
past participlesleeted
pastsleeted

Origin of sleet

From Middle English slete, probably from Old English *slēte, *slȳte, *slīete, from Proto-West Germanic *slautijā, from Proto-Germanic *slautijǭ (“sleet”). Walter W. Skeat, the author of Etymological Dictionary of the English Language, suggests Old Norse slydda (whence Danish slud (“mixture of rain and snow”)). The word appears to be akin to Low German Sloot (“hail”), dialectal German Schloße (“large hailstone”), Old Gutnish sloyta (“slush, sleet”). Doublet of slut.

Words formed from sleet

Words that rhyme with sleet

48 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about sleet

What does sleet mean?
Sleet means pellets of ice made of mostly-frozen raindrops or refrozen melted snowflakes.
What is sleet in Tamil?
Sleet in Tamil is ஆலங்கட்டி மழை, ஆலங்கட்டு மழை, கல்மழை. See Sleet meaning in Tamil.
What part of speech is sleet?
Sleet can be a noun or a verb.
How do you pronounce sleet?
Sleet is pronounced /sliːt/.
What is the plural of sleet?
The plural of sleet is sleets.

Words near sleet in the dictionary

  1. sleered
  2. sleering
  3. sleers
  4. Slees
  5. sleest
  6. sleet
  7. sleetch
  8. sleeted
  9. sleetful
  10. Sleeth
  11. Sleeths

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: sleet (page history and authors); sleet (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); sleet (Urdu Wiktionary) (page history and authors); sleet (Bengali Wiktionary) (page history and authors); sleet (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-sleet.wav.

Cite this entry: “sleet.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/sleet. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.