sneeze

/sniːz/

sneeze verb: to expel air as a reflex induced by an irritation in the nose.

Verb

sneeze (third-person singular simple present sneezes, present participle sneezing, simple past sneezed or (obsolete or humorous) snoze, past participle sneezed or (obsolete or humorous) snoze or (obsolete or humorous) snozen)

(intransitive) To expel air as a reflex induced by an irritation in the nose.
- To avoid passing on your illness, you should sneeze into your sleeve.
Synonyms:

neeze, sternutate
(intransitive) To expel air as if the nose were irritated.
(transitive) To expel or displace (air, snot, etc) from the nose or mouth by the process above.
- Lily shook her head violently and sneezed a large blue-bottle fly from where that insect had perched itself on the tip of her nose.1924, Hugh Wiley, The Prowler, page 88
- When I crossed the road, I sneezed a big achoo! My nose started to feel itchy.2010, Gunleen Deol, Sleepover Disaster, AuthorHouse, →ISBN, page 15

Noun

sneeze (plural sneezes)

An act of sneezing.
- Jared's hay fever gives him terrible sneezes.
Synonyms:

sternutation, ptarmus

sneeze meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu

sneeze in Hindi

expel air as a reflex: छींकना chī̃knā
act of sneezing: छींक chī̃k

sneeze in Tamil

தும்மல், தும்மு

sneeze in Marathi

to sneeze: शिंकणे śiṅkṇe
sneeze: शिंक śiṅka

sneeze in Urdu

expel air as a reflex: چهینکنا chīṅknā, چھینک مارنا chīṅk mārnā

More languagesFewer languages

sneeze in Bengali: হাঁচি দেত্তয়া hãci dettoẏa
sneeze in Telugu: తుమ్ము tummu
sneeze in Malayalam: ഓമ്പുക ōmpuka
sneeze in Kannada: ಸೀನುವುದು, ಸೀನುವ ಶಬ್ದ, ಸೀನುವಿಕೆ, ಸೀನ್
sneeze in Punjabi: ਨਿੱਛ ਮਾਰਨੀ niccha mārnī, ਨਿੱਛਣਾ nicchaṇā, ਛਿੱਕਣਾ chikkaṇā, ਨਿੱਛ ਆਉਣੀ niccha āuṇī
sneeze in Gujarati: છીંક chī̃k
sneeze in Odia: ଛିଙ୍କାଇବା Chhiṅkāibā, ଛିଙ୍କା Chhiṅkā
sneeze in Sanskrit: क्षु kṣu, क्षुत् kṣut, छिक्कति chikkati
sneeze in Assamese: হাঁচিয়া hãsia, হাঁচ hãs, হাঁচি মাৰ hãsi mar, হাঁচি hãsi
sneeze in Tagalog: bumahin, humatsing, bahing, hatsing
sneeze in Arabic: عَطَسَ ʕaṭasa, عُطَاس ʕuṭās, عَطْسَة ʕaṭsa
sneeze in Malay: bersin
sneeze in Indonesian: bersin
sneeze in Persian: عطسه کردن 'atse kardan, عطسه 'atse, شنوشه šenuše, اشنوسه ešnuse
sneeze in Thai: จาม jaam
sneeze in Vietnamese: hắt hơi, hắt xì, nhảy mũi, cái hắt hơi
sneeze in Myanmar: ချေ hkye
Dzongkha: ཨག་ཚི་རྐྱབ་པ ag tshi rkyab pa

Examples of sneeze in a sentence

“Okay,”he said, and sneezed a large drop of pinkish goop.2014, Fowler DeWitt, The Contagious Colors of Mumpley Middle School, Simon and Schuster, →ISBN, page 89:
Toothless sneezed a large amount of dragon snot right in Hiccup's face.2017, Cressida Cowell, How to Train Your Dragon: How to Betray a Dragon's Hero, Hachette Children's, →ISBN:

All 37 example sentences with sneeze

Synonyms of sneeze

Forms of sneeze

Verb
third-person singular present	sneezes
present participle	sneezing
past	sneezed
past participle	sneezed
past (humorous, obsolete)	snoze
past participle (humorous, obsolete)	snoze
past participle (humorous, obsolete)	snozen
Noun
plural	sneezes

Past tense of sneeze: sneezed

Origin of sneeze

From Middle English snesen (“to sneeze”), alteration of earlier fnesen (“to sneeze”), from Old English fnēosan (“to sneeze, snort”), from Proto-West Germanic *fneusan, from Proto-Germanic *fneusaną, from Proto-Indo-European *pnew- (“to breathe, pant, snort, sneeze”). Cognate with dialectal Dutch fniezen (“to sneeze”), Old Norse fnýsa (“to snort”). Compare neeze, from Middle English nesen, from Old English *hnēosan (“to sneeze”), cognate with Old High German niosan (“to sneeze”), Old Norse hnjósa (“to sneeze”). See neeze. It has been suggested that the change could be due to a misinterpretation of the uncommon initial sequence fn- as ſn- (sn- written with a long s), although the change is regular, seen also in snore and snort from Middle English fnoren and fnorten, and in late Middle English snatted from earlier Middle English fnatted (“snub-nosed”). The fn- forms of all these words fell out of use in the 1400s. Due to this rather universal adoption of the fn- > sn- shift within English by such a time frame, the idea of it being a simple sound shift has been suggested as well, with it specifically being a type of assimilation as the labial f- becomes alveolar s- to match the place...

Words formed from sneeze

Phrases with sneeze

Words that rhyme with sneeze

48 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about sneeze

What does sneeze mean?: Sneeze means to expel air as a reflex induced by an irritation in the nose.
What is sneeze in Hindi?: Sneeze in Hindi is छींकना (chī̃knā), छींक (chī̃k). See Sneeze meaning in Hindi.
How do you use sneeze in a sentence?: “Okay,”he said, and sneezed a large drop of pinkish goop.
What part of speech is sneeze?: Sneeze can be a verb or a noun.
How do you pronounce sneeze?: Sneeze is pronounced /sniːz/.
What is the past tense of sneeze?: The past tense of sneeze is sneezed.

Words near sneeze in the dictionary

Adapted from Wiktionary: sneeze (page history and authors); sneeze (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); शिंक (Marathi) (page history and authors); sneeze (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors); છીંક (Gujarati) (page history and authors); क्षु (Sanskrit) (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: 2026-09-02

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-sneeze.ogg.

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