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Added 9 October 2026

sneeze

/sniːz/ verb

In Latin: sternuō, sternūtō Wiktionary

verb Definition from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA). Pronunciation from Wiktionary, via Kaikki.org. More about sneeze at Wordnik → Where our words come from →

To expel air as a reflex induced by an irritation in the nose.
To avoid passing on your illness, you should sneeze into your sleeve.
To expel air as if the nose were irritated.
To expel or displace (air, snot, etc) from the nose or mouth by the process above.

noun

An act of sneezing.
Jared's hay fever gives him terrible sneezes.

Origin

From Middle English snesen (“to sneeze”), alteration of earlier fnesen (“to sneeze”), from Old English fnēosan (“to sneeze, snort”), from Proto-West Germanic *fneusan, from Proto-Germanic *fneusaną, from Proto-Indo-European *pnew- (“to breathe, pant, snort, sneeze”). Cognate with dialectal Dutch fniezen (“to sneeze”), Old Norse fnýsa (“to snort”). Compare neeze, from Middle English nesen, from Old English *hnēosan (“to sneeze”), cognate with Old High German niosan (“to sneeze”), Old Norse hnjósa (“to sneeze”). See neeze.

From Wiktionary, via Kaikki.org (CC BY-SA)

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