# snowball

> English word · Noun · IPA /ˈsnəʊbɔːl/ · frequency rank #23,106

## Definitions
1. A ball of snow, usually one made in the hand and thrown for amusement in a snowball fight; also a larger ball of snow made by rolling a snowball around in snow that sticks to it and increases its diameter.
2. A cocktail made from lemonade and advocaat.
3. Something that snowballs (grows rapidly out of control).
4. A sex act involving passing ejaculated semen from one person's mouth to another's.
5. A type of ice dessert: a snow cone.
6. A small cake, typically cream-filled and covered in chocolate icing and desiccated coconut.

## Etymology
From Middle English snoweball, snoweballe, snaweballe, snayballe, equivalent to snow + ball. Cognate with Scots snawbaw, German Schneeball, Luxembourgish Schnéiball, Dutch sneeuwbal, Afrikaans sneeubal, Limburgish snieëbal, West Frisian sniebal, Saterland Frisian Sneebaal, Sneebal, Swedish snöboll, Elfdalian sniųoboll, Danish snebold, Norwegian Bokmål snøball, Norwegian Nynorsk snøball and Icelandic snjóbolti.

## Easily confused with
- **snowfall** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/snowball-vs-snowfall)

## Common misspellings (11)
`nsowball`, `snnowball`, `snobwall`, `snowabll`, `snowbal`, `snowbball`, `snowblal`, `snowwball`, `snwoball`, `sonwball`, `ssnowball`

## Source
Compiled from Wiktionary via kaikki.org (CC BY-SA). Data vintage: 2026-05-06.
Canonical page: https://plainspell.com/en/word/snowball