snail
/sneɪl/
Word Rarity
Rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 3.67 in modern English
5
Scrabble Score
5
Letters
1
Syllables
5
Unique Chars
Meaning
noun
Any of very many animals (either hermaphroditic or nonhermaphroditic), of the class Gastropoda, having a coiled shell.
noun
A spiral cam, or a flat piece of metal of spirally curved outline, used for giving motion to, or changing the position of, another part, as the hammer tail of a striking clock.
noun
The pod of the snail clover.
noun
A locomotive with a prime mover but no traction motors, used to provide extra electrical power to another locomotive.
Example Sentences
- "‘Children crawled over each other like little grey worms in the gutters,’ he said. ‘The only red things about them were their buttocks and they were raw. Their faces looked as if snails had slimed on them and their mothers were like great sick beasts whose byres had never been cleared. […]’"
- "The cars were snailing along the motorway during the rush hour."
Etymology
From Middle English snayl, snail, from the Old English sneġel, from Proto-Germanic *snagilaz. Cognate with Low German Snagel, Snâel, Snâl (“snail”), German Schnegel (“slug”). Compare also Old Norse snigill, from Proto-Germanic *snigilaz.
Origin
Word Breakdown
- Root: snayl, sneġel, *snagilaz
Usage
Inflected Forms
Derived Forms
ambersnail
housesnail
microsnail
mudsnail
pebblesnail
rocksnail
seasnail
slugsnail
snailase
snailborne
snailery
snailfish
Phrases
achatine snail
African snail
agate snail
amber snail
apple snail
Australian snail
awl snail
Badwater snail