What does winteriest mean?
“Winteriest” is the superlative of “wintry” and means the most wintry: most characteristic of winter, especially in being cold, snowy, or bleak. It is used to make comparisons among days, seasons, places, weather conditions, or experiences. For example, a northern location may be called the winteriest part of a journey, while a particularly harsh afternoon can be described as the winteriest of the year. The word can be literal, referring chiefly to low temperatures and snow, or figurative, suggesting emotional bleakness, hardship, or severity. Although winteriest is fully established, the alternative spelling wintriest is more familiar to many speakers. In prose, it gives ordinary comparisons a vivid, atmospheric quality because it evokes the harshness of winter rather than merely stating that something is cold. The word belongs to the degree forms of wintry, with the related comparative forms wintrier and winterier and the alternative superlative wintriest.
adjectiveThe superlative of wintry or wintery, meaning the most characteristic of winter, especially in being cold, snowy, or bleak.
- Most characteristic of winter; the coldest, snowiest, or bleakest.
"Of all the places we visited, the northern coast was the winteriest."
"The northern coast was the winteriest part of our journey."
"Even the winteriest afternoon could not persuade him to leave the house."
Two spellings, one frozen superlative: wintriest and winteriest both mean most wintry.
Reviewed by Deb Chak, Editor. AI-assisted content curated by RJS Tech Solutions LLP.
Etymology of winteriest
Winteriest comes from wintery, a variant spelling of wintry, with the English superlative ending -iest; replacing the final y in wintery produces winteriest in the same way that happy produces happiest. Wintry and winter belong to the Germanic lexical family associated with English winter, German Winter, and Dutch winter. The parallel form wintriest reflects the i-before-suffix spelling associated with wintry.
Related word forms
How winteriest is actually used
This is normally an inflected superlative rather than an independent dictionary headword. It is chiefly encountered in descriptive prose, and wintriest is generally the more common spelling.
Easily confused with winteriest
Wintriest is the more familiar spelling of the same superlative of wintry, whereas winteriest is an established variant formed from wintery.