sleet
/sliːt/noun, verb
sleet is spelled S-L-E-E-T: 5 letters and one syllable. It appears about once in every 1 million words in written English, the 35,748th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a noun, sleet means “Pellets of ice made of mostly-frozen raindrops or refrozen melted snowflakes” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of sleet is sleets.
How many letters and syllables are in sleet?
| Letters | 5: S-L-E-E-T |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 1 (from its American pronunciation) |
| In writing | about once in every 1 million words; the 35,748th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | none measured in search |
| Same letters |
Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation and the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media); rhymes and same-letter words are computed by PlainSpell from its own word list.
How common is sleet?
Sleet appears about once in every 1 million words in written English, the 35,748th most frequent word form in the list.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How do you pronounce sleet?
- /sliːt/
Sleet has one syllable (counted from its American pronunciation in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: LL-Q1860_(eng)-Vealhurl-sleet.wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
What rhymes with sleet?
No other word on PlainSpell ends in the same sounds as sleet.
Spelled with the same letters in another order: steel, stele.
Computed by PlainSpell from the pronunciations in the English Wiktionary (dump of September 2, 2026): a rhyme shares every sound from the last stressed vowel to the end; ordered by written frequency (wordfreq 3.1).
Forms of sleet
- sleets plural, present, singular, he/she/it
- sleeting participle, present
- sleeted participle, past
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does sleet mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
noun
- 1
USPellets of ice made of mostly-frozen raindrops or refrozen melted snowflakes.
- 2
IrelandUKUSPrecipitation in the form of a mixture of rain and snow.
- 3
rareA smooth coating of ice formed on ground or other objects by freezing rain.
- 4
The part of a mortar extending from the chamber to the trunnions.
verb
- 1
To be in a state in which sleet is falling.
I won't bother going out until it's stopped sleeting.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Sleet in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | grésil , verglas , grésiller |
| German | Graupel, gefrierende Nässe , Glatteis , Schneeregen |
| Portuguese | grão de gelo , gelo negro , granizar , água-neve |
| Spanish | perdigón de hielo , cellisquear , aguanieve, cellisca |
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.
Where does sleet come from?
From Middle English slete, probably from Old English *slēte, *slȳte, *slīete, from Proto-West Germanic *slautijā, from Proto-Germanic *slautijǭ (“sleet”). Walter W. Skeat, the author of Etymological Dictionary of the English Language, suggests Old Norse slydda (whence Danish slud (“mixture of rain and snow”)). The word appears to be akin to Low German Sloot (“hail”), dialectal German Schloße (“large hailstone”), Old Gutnish sloyta (“slush, sleet”). Doublet of slut.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).