Word.ws English Dictionary

sniffy

/ˈsnɪfi/

sniffy adjective: disdainful; haughty.

Adjective

sniffy (comparative sniffier, superlative sniffiest)

  1. Disdainful; haughty.
    • some regard Hanks with a sniffy attitude, seeing his middlebrow Hollywood fare as unfashionable (yes) and reactionary (no).2021 February 9, Christina Newland, “Is Tom Hanks part of a dying breed of genuine movie stars?”, in BBC
  2. Characterised by sniffing.
    • a sniffy cold that turned into a sore throat
    Synonyms:
    sniffly

Synonyms of sniffy

Forms of sniffy

comparativesniffier
superlativesniffiest

Origin of sniffy

From sniff + -y.

Words formed from sniffy

Words that rhyme with sniffy

1 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about sniffy

What does sniffy mean?
Sniffy means disdainful; haughty.
What part of speech is sniffy?
Sniffy is an adjective.
How do you pronounce sniffy?
Sniffy is pronounced /ˈsnɪfi/.

Words near sniffy in the dictionary

  1. sniffly
  2. sniffs
  3. sniffs around
  4. sniffs out
  5. sniffs up
  6. sniffy
  7. snift
  8. snifted
  9. snifter
  10. snifter valve
  11. snifter valves

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: sniffy (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-sniffy.wav.

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