Meaning & use
snore
Last updated
Meanings
verbintransitive
To breathe noisily through your nose and mouth while you are asleep.
Grammar: No object: you snore, but you never 'snore something'.
Patterns
- snore loudly
- snore all night
- snore like a …
My brother snores so loudly that I can hear him through the wall.
She only snores when she sleeps on her back.
He was snoring peacefully when the alarm went off.
nouncountable
A loud, rough sound made by breathing during sleep.
Grammar: Countable: a snore, a loud snore, the snores coming from the next room.
Patterns
- a loud snore
- hear someone's snores
A loud snore woke me up at three in the morning.
We could hear his snores from the hallway.
She gave a soft snore and turned over.
Word forms
| third person singular | snores |
|---|---|
| past tense | snored |
| past participle | snored |
| -ing form | snoring |
| plural | snores |
Common combinations
- snore loudly
- He snores loudly after a big meal.
- snore all night
- I snored all night and woke up with a sore throat.
- stop snoring
- She bought a special pillow to stop snoring.
- a loud snore
- A loud snore came from the other side of the room.
- snore like a chainsaw
- My roommate snores like a chainsaw.
Synonyms and how they differ
Word family
- snorer noun
- a person who snores
- snoring noun
- the act or sound of breathing noisily in sleep
Commonly confused: snore or snort? snore or sniff?
snore vs snort
To snort is to force air noisily through your nose, often to show anger or amusement, and you are awake.
snore vs sniff
To sniff is to breathe in air quickly through your nose, usually to smell something or because you have a cold.
Practice
Which sentence is grammatically correct?
Choose one answer.
The past tense of 'snore' is 'snored', so B is right. A uses the base form, C needs the -ing form after 'was', and D needs the past participle 'snored' after 'has'.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “snore”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.