sleet

CEFRB1

/sliːt/

noun

Türkçe translations

Translating…

In plain English

  1. 01

    noun

    Rain that freezes into small pieces of ice.

  2. 02

    noun

    Extra detail

    A smooth coating of ice formed on ground or other objects by freezing rain.

Examples

  • It's not much fun to walk through sleet without even a warm jacket.

  • When there is snow, ice, sleet, hail, thunder, rain, and wind.

At a glance

Sits at B1 on the CEFR scale

Senses
5
Parts of speech
1
Citations
2
Synonyms
3

Deep Dive

noun

Extra meanings

  1. Precipitation in the form of a mixture of rain and snow.

  2. Pellets of ice made of mostly-frozen raindrops or refrozen melted snowflakes.

  3. The part of a mortar extending from the chamber to the trunnions.

More examples

In context

  • Sleet was falling from the sky.

  • I won't bother going out until it's stopped sleeting.

  • It was dark, it was cold, it was sleeting - dreadful conditions for driving... perfect conditions for an accident.

Synonyms

Quick test

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Question 1 · Quick check

The weather forecast warned of freezing rain turning into blank during the afternoon commute.

Practise this properly in the app, where the word comes back before you forget it.

Nearby

Origin

noun

From Middle English slete, probably from Old English *slēte, *slȳte, *slīete, from Proto-West Germanic *slautijā, from Proto-Germanic *slautijǭ (“sleet”). Walter W. Skeat, the author of Etymological Dictionary of the English Language, suggests Old Norse slydda (whence Danish slud (“mixture of rain and snow”)). The word appears to be akin to Low German Sloot (“hail”), dialectal German Schloße (“large hailstone”), Old Gutnish sloyta (“slush, sleet”). Doublet of slut.