SNOWFLAKE

Pronunciation (US):

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does snowflake mean? 

• SNOWFLAKE (noun)
  The noun SNOWFLAKE has 2 senses:

1. a crystal of snow

2. white Arctic bunting

  Familiarity information: SNOWFLAKE used as a noun is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• SNOWFLAKE (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

A crystal of snow

Classified under:

Nouns denoting natural phenomena

Synonyms:

flake; snowflake

Hypernyms ("snowflake" is a kind of...):

crystal (a solid formed by the solidification of a chemical and having a highly regular atomic structure)

Meronyms (substance of "snowflake"):

H2O; water (binary compound that occurs at room temperature as a clear colorless odorless tasteless liquid; freezes into ice below 0 degrees centigrade and boils above 100 degrees centigrade; widely used as a solvent)

Holonyms ("snowflake" is a part of...):

snow; snowfall (precipitation falling from clouds in the form of ice crystals)

Holonyms ("snowflake" is a substance of...):

snow (a layer of snowflakes (white crystals of frozen water) covering the ground)

Sense 2

Meaning:

White Arctic bunting

Classified under:

Nouns denoting animals

Synonyms:

Plectrophenax nivalis; snow bunting; snowbird; snowflake

Hypernyms ("snowflake" is a kind of...):

bunting (any of numerous seed-eating songbirds of Europe or North America)

Holonyms ("snowflake" is a member of...):

genus Plectrophenax; Plectrophenax (snow bunting)

 Context examples 

Scientists at Rutgers University have developed a technique to turn proteins into never-ending patterns that look like flowers, trees or snowflakes.

(New technique helps engineer water filters, human tissues, National Science Foundation)

Left alone, I walked to the window; but nothing was to be seen thence: twilight and snowflakes together thickened the air, and hid the very shrubs on the lawn.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

Like a rose-petal, he thought; cool and soft as a snowflake.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

They played tag and soldiers, danced and sang, and when it began to grow dark they all piled onto the sofa about the Professor, while he told charming fairy stories of the storks on the chimney tops, and the little 'koblods', who ride the snowflakes as they fall.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

She took care to do everything according to the old woman’s bidding and every time she made the bed she shook it with all her might, so that the feathers flew about like so many snowflakes.

(Fairy Tales, by The Brothers Grimm)

This December, your friends may have candy canes dancing in their heads now that the holiday season is upon us, but not you—you will have to hit the ground running, for assignments will tumble toward you rapidly like snowflakes in a blizzard.

(AstrologyZone.com, by Susan Miller)

The researchers can also manipulate the dimensions of the shapes, so they resemble flowers, trees or snowflakes, which are visualized using special microscopy techniques.

(New technique helps engineer water filters, human tissues, National Science Foundation)

In the evening, when the snowflakes fell, the mother said: Go, Snow-white, and bolt the door, and then they sat round the hearth, and the mother took her spectacles and read aloud out of a large book, and the two girls listened as they sat and spun.

(Fairy Tales, by The Brothers Grimm)