Meaning & use
somnambulist
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Meanings
nouncountablemedical
A person who gets up and walks about, or does other things, while asleep.
Grammar: Countable; the everyday word is sleepwalker.
The somnambulist was found sitting calmly on the stairs, still asleep.
Her brother is a somnambulist, so the family locks the front door at night.
The doctor studied several somnambulists in the sleep clinic.
nouncountablefigurativeliterary
Someone who goes through life or work in a dreamy, unaware way, as though not fully awake.
Grammar: Figurative use, often critical.
After the layoffs, the office was full of somnambulists drifting between desks.
He lived as a somnambulist, never noticing the changes around him.
The novel's hero is a somnambulist who cannot see his own problems.
Word forms
| plural | somnambulists |
|---|
Common combinations
- a known somnambulist
- As a known somnambulist, he slept in a ground-floor room.
- like a somnambulist
- She walked through the day like a somnambulist.
- famous somnambulist
- The play features a famous somnambulist who confesses in her sleep.
- treat a somnambulist
- Doctors learned to treat a somnambulist with patience, not shock.
Synonyms and how they differ
- sleepwalker
- Sleepwalker is the everyday word, while somnambulist sounds clinical or literary.
- automaton
- An automaton is a person acting mechanically, but without the sleeping image that somnambulist carries.
- zombie
- Zombie is informal and humorous when applied to a tired person, whereas somnambulist is formal and more precise about sleepwalking.
Word family
- somnambulism noun
- the condition of sleepwalking
- somnambulant adjective
- sleepwalking or acting as if asleep
- somnambulate verb
- to walk while asleep (rare)
- somnambulistic adjective
- like or relating to sleepwalking
Commonly confused: somnambulist or insomniac?
somnambulist vs insomniac
An insomniac cannot sleep, while a somnambulist walks while asleep.
Practice
The family put a lock high on the door because their son is a ___.
Choose one answer.
A somnambulist walks in their sleep, so a high lock keeps him safe. An insomniac has trouble sleeping at all, which would not call for this.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “somnambulist”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.