Word.ws English Dictionary

snowflake

UK/ˈsnəʊ.fleɪk//ˈsnoʊ.fleɪk/

snowflake noun: a crystal of snow, having approximate hexagonal symmetry.

Noun

snowflake (plural snowflakes)

  1. A crystal of snow, having approximate hexagonal symmetry.
  2. Any of several bulbous European plants, of the genus Leucojum, having white flowers.
  3. The snow bunting, Plectrophenax nivalis.
  4. (derogatory, slang) Someone who believes they are particularly unique and special.
    • When I come home, one space monkey is reading to the assembled space monkeys who sit covering the whole first floor. “You are not a beautiful and unique snowflake. You are the same decaying organic matter as everyone else, and we are all part of the same compost pile.”1996, Chuck Palahniuk, Fight Club, published 2005, →ISBN, page 134
  5. (derogatory, slang) Someone hypersensitive to insult or offense, especially a young person with politically correct sensibilities.
    • When have words ever hurt anyone? The triggered snowflakes at this liberal university are trying to literally murder our freedom of speech.2017, Dylan Kyle, quoted in "Campus Voices", The Mugdown (Texas A&M University), August 2017, page 15
    • Fox News pundits claim to be upset because companies are choosing to embrace the "holidays" rather than "Christmas" to avoid offending any liberal snowflakes.2017, Ben Brill, "What's wrong with saying 'Happy holidays' this December", High Tide (Redondo Union High School), 20 October 2017, page 7
  6. A type of lesion that appears as scattered white-brown spots under high magnification light microscopy.
    • Robertson and colleagues reported 10 patients in four families with lesions similar to those of stage I and stage II snowflake generation.2007, Kenneth W. Wright, Peter H. Spiegel, Lisa Thompson, Handbook of Pediatric Retinal Disease, →ISBN, page 195
    • The authors have recently analyzed a PMMA lens explanted because of snowflake degeneration in the dry and hydrated states.2010, Roger F. Steinert, Cataract Surgery, →ISBN, page 525
  7. Something that is unique in every presentation.
    • MS is referred to as a “snowflake” disease because symptoms vary from person to person.2016 July 14, Sara Schabe, Krysten Massa, “North Fork native begins stem cell treatment to battle MS”, in Suffolk Times
  8. (derogatory, slang, usually) A Caucasian person.
    • Alright, snowflake, where's the dope?2009, Michael Jai White, Byron Minns, Scott Sanders, Black Dynamite (motion picture), spoken by Black Dynamite (Michael Jai White)
  9. (historical) Someone (usually white) who was opposed to the abolition of slavery (Missouri, 1860s)

Verb

snowflake (third-person singular simple present snowflakes, present participle snowflaking, simple past and past participle snowflaked)

  1. To fall in the manner of a snowflake.
    • Like a seagull swooping, the white figure of a victim snowflaked against the cliff and then plummeted down.1966, James Workman, The Mad Emperor, Melbourne, Sydney: Scripts, page 143
  2. To arrange (data) into a snowflake schema.

snowflake meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Urdu and Bengali

snowflake in Hindi

crystal
हिमकण himkaṇ

snowflake in Tamil

ஸ்னோஃப்ளேக்

snowflake in Urdu

crystal
بَرْف کا گالَہ barf kā gāla

snowflake in Bengali

তুষারকণা
More languagesFewer languages
snowflake in Telugu
స్నోఫ్లేక్
snowflake in Kannada
ಸ್ನೋಫ್ಲೇಕ್
snowflake in Gujarati
સ્નોફ્લેક, સ્નોવ્લેક
snowflake in Nepali
स्नोफ्लेक, स्नोफ्लेक गर्न
snowflake in Arabic
رُقَاقَةُ الثَّلْج ruqāqatu ṯ-ṯalj, نُدْفَةُ الثَّلْج nudfatu ṯ-ṯalj
snowflake in Malay
daun salji
snowflake in Indonesian
kepingan salju
snowflake in Thai
เกล็ดหิมะ glèt-hì-má
snowflake in Vietnamese
bông tuyết, hoa tuyết
snowflake in Myanmar
နှင်းပွင့် hnang:pwang.

Examples of snowflake in a sentence

  • Now, at least in theory, snowflakes on both coasts in withdrawal from Rachel Maddow’s nightly Kremlinology lesson can purchase a whole book to inspire paroxysms of rage.2019 April 17, Bari Weiss, “Bret Easton Ellis Takes On ‘Generation Wuss’”, in The New York Times, →ISSN:
  • Within a few minutes of stepping foot on the school grounds, a triggered snowflake called the police.2020 January 31, Erin McLaughlin, “Free speech cowed at GMU”, in The Collegian, Grove City College, page 8:
  • These defects may be more pronounced in the superior visual field, perhaps corresponding to the inferior predilection for the snowflake lesions.2011, Elias I. Traboulsi, Genetic Diseases of the Eye, →ISBN, page 520:

All 23 example sentences with snowflake

Synonyms of snowflake

Forms of snowflake

Noun
pluralsnowflakes
alternative formsnow flake
alternative formsnow-flake
alternative form❄
Verb
third-person singular presentsnowflakes
present participlesnowflaking
past participlesnowflaked
pastsnowflaked

Plural of snowflake: snowflakes

Origin of snowflake

From snow + flake. Compare Saterland Frisian Sneeflokke (“snowflake”), Dutch sneeuwvlok, Luxembourgish Schnéiflack, German Schneeflocke.

Words formed from snowflake

Phrases with snowflake

Questions about snowflake

What does snowflake mean?
Snowflake means a crystal of snow, having approximate hexagonal symmetry.
What is snowflake in Hindi?
Snowflake in Hindi is हिमकण (himkaṇ). See Snowflake meaning in Hindi.
How do you use snowflake in a sentence?
Now, at least in theory, snowflakes on both coasts in withdrawal from Rachel Maddow’s nightly Kremlinology lesson can purchase a whole book to inspire paroxysms of rage.
What part of speech is snowflake?
Snowflake can be a noun or a verb.
How do you pronounce snowflake?
Snowflake is pronounced /ˈsnəʊ.fleɪk/ (UK).
What is the plural of snowflake?
The plural of snowflake is snowflakes.

Words near snowflake in the dictionary

  1. snowfighters
  2. snowfighting
  3. snowfights
  4. snowfinch
  5. snowfinches
  6. snowflake
  7. snowflake babies
  8. snowflake baby
  9. snowflake child
  10. snowflake children
  11. snowflake curve

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: snowflake (page history and authors); snowflake (Tamil, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); snowflake (Bengali Wiktionary) (page history and authors); snowflake (Telugu, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); snowflake (Kannada, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); snowflake (Gujarati, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); snowflake (Nepali, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license). 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: en-us-snowflake.ogg.

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