Word Pronunciation & Dictionary

snake

/sneɪk/

Word Rarity Uncommon

Frequency: Zipf frequency 4.23 in modern English

Syllables: snake
IPA: /sneɪk/

9

Scrabble Score

5

Letters

1

Syllables

5

Unique Chars

Meaning

noun

Any of the suborder Serpentes of legless reptiles with long, thin bodies and fork-shaped tongues.

noun

A person who acts deceitfully for personal or social gain; a treacherous person.

noun

A tool for unclogging plumbing.

noun

A tool to aid cable pulling.

noun

A flavoured jube (confectionary) in the shape of a snake.

Australian usage; British usage

noun

Trouser snake; the penis.

Slang

noun

A series of Bézier curves.

noun

The seventh Lenormand card.

Example Sentences

"The man writhed like a trampled snake, and a red foam bubbled from his lips."
"After dark the train is a lighted snake, as, even when the passengers' lights are out, each carriage has a side-light in the middle just under the eaves."
"Near-synonyms: rat; see also Thesaurus:betrayer"
"Mrs. Kenwigs was horror-stricken to think that she should ever have nourished in her bosom such a snake, adder, viper, serpent, and base crocodile, as Henrietta Petowker."
"Well, if it was Moore, he's a fucking snake."
"[Friedrich] Kadgien—described by US interrogators as “not a true Nazi” but “a snake of the lowest sort”—subsequently left Switzerland for Brazil then Argentina, the paper said, where he started a company and a family and died in 1978, aged 71."

Etymology

Etymology tree Proto-Germanic *sneganą Proto-Germanic *snakaną Proto-West Germanic *snakan Proto-Indo-European *-ō Proto-Germanic *-ô Proto-West Germanic *-ō Proto-West Germanic *snakō Old English snaca Middle English snake English snake From Middle English snake, from Old English snaca (“snake, serpent, reptile”), from Proto-West Germanic *snakō (“slider, snake”), from *snakan (“to creep, slide”), related to Old High German snahhan (“to sneak, slide”). Compare also Proto-Germanic *snēkô (“creeper, crawler”). Cognate with German Low German Snake, Snaak (“snake”), dialectal German Schnake (“adder”), Danish snog (“grass snake”), Swedish snok (“grass snake”), Norwegian Nynorsk snåk (“viper, adder”), Faroese snákur (“grass snake”), Icelandic snákur (“snake”).

Origin

Source language: Middle English

Word Breakdown

Root: snake, snaca, *snakō

Regional Pronunciation

American English: /sneɪk/
British English: /sneɪk/

Usage

Inflected Forms

snakes (plural) snek (alternative, Internet) snakes (present, singular) snaking (participle, present) snaked (participle, past) snaked (past)

Derived Forms

antisnake blacksnake bullsnake flowsnake hornsnake kingsnake mersnake mudsnake rattlesnake Snake snakebelly snakeberry

Phrases

Aesculapian snake arrow snake as mad as a cut snake ball snake bastard horn snake beer snake Big Bend patchnose snake black pepper snake

Frequently Paired Words

:Category:Snakes anguine

Synonyms

Joe Blake serpent rat backstabber betrayer cockatrice double-crosser quisling ratter recreant renegade snake

Rhymes With

make take break lake wake mistake fake cake sake shake jake blake

Questions

How do you pronounce snake?: The recorded pronunciation is /sneɪk/.
What does snake mean?: Any of the suborder Serpentes of legless reptiles with long, thin bodies and fork-shaped tongues.
Where does snake come from?: It is traced to Middle English.

How to pronounce snake

Open the pronunciation page — Open the Speakur entry for “snake”.
Read the phonetic spelling — Read the IPA spelling (/sneɪk/) so you know which sounds to aim for.
Play the audio — Click Play to hear reference audio for “snake”.
Repeat and practice — Say “snake” aloud, matching stress and vowels until it feels natural.