Somnolent

//ˈsɒmnələnt// adj

adj ·Moderate ·College level

Definitions

Adjective
  1. 1
    Drowsy or sleepy.

    "One minute she was gazing at a mockup of a space capsule, safely surrounded by old, somnolent men; […]"

  2. 2
    Causing literal or figurative sleepiness. dated

    "As she reached toward the last few fiddleheads growing on the second hummock, her hand froze. She heard the somnolent buzzing of flies again."

Adjective
  1. 1
    inclined to or marked by drowsiness wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms
slumberousslumberousadrowseanesthetizedapatheticbedroomy

Example

More examples

"I'm especially miserable on Sundays, because the mood in the house turns somnolent and heavy."

Etymology

First attested in 1615. Borrowed from French somnolent, from Old French sompnolent, from Latin somnolentus, from somnus (“sleep”).

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.