snowflake

[ snoh-fleyk ]

noun

1. one of the small, feathery masses or flakes in which snow falls.
2. Facetious Slang. a person who is considered unique and deserving of special treatment:

   I have twenty-eight special snowflakes in my classroom, and their parents’ demands make teaching impossible!

3. Slang. a person who is easily offended, overly sensitive, or emotionally fragile:

   You snowflakes need to leave your safe spaces and engage with people who disagree with your beliefs.

4. Meteorology.
   1. an agglomeration of snow crystals falling as a unit.
   2. any snow particle.
5. any of certain European plants belonging to the genus Leucojum, of the amaryllis family, resembling the snowdrop.
6. snow bunting.

snowflake

/ ˈsnəʊˌfleɪk /

noun

1. one of the mass of small thin delicate arrangements of ice crystals that fall as snow
2. any of various European amaryllidaceous plants of the genus Leucojum, such as L. vernum ( spring snowflake ), that have white nodding bell-shaped flowers

Word History and Origins

Origin of snowflake¹

First recorded in 1725–35; snow + flake ¹

Example Sentences

The black-and-white, four-minute animation, called Little Shrew, is set to her 2011 track Snowflake and aims to raise money and awareness for the charity War Child.

From BBC

While some people may say this new communication trend is further proof of us being "generation snowflake", it's actually far from that.

From BBC

AT&T says the breach occurred in a company connection to a third-party cloud data service called Snowflake, to which it had entrusted its customer data.

From Los Angeles Times

As it happens, some 165 of Snowflake’s corporate clients may also have been targeted by the hackers who struck AT&T. An ongoing investigation by cybersecurity experts suggests, however, that the fault isn’t Snowflake’s — it’s the fault of those clients, who didn’t observe best security practices.

From Los Angeles Times

Reports from cybersecurity firm Hudson Rock allege that cloud software provider Snowflake was the target of the attack, and that hackers claimed the ability to breach other Snowflake customers.

From Salon

Related Words

• sleet