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The earliest recorded appearance of the word blizzard meaning “a severe snowstorm” was in the April 23, 1870 issue of a newspaper published in Estherville, Iowa. Blizzard shows up again during the following years in several newspapers in Iowa and neighboring states, and by 1888, when a snowstorm paralyzed the Eastern seaboard, the word was well-known nationally. However, in other senses, the word blizzard existed earlier. Davy Crockett, for instance, used it twice in the 1830s, once to mean a rifle blast and once to refer to a blast of words. All of these uses seem related, but the ultimate origin of the word is still unclear.
Examples of blizzard in a Sentence
Bill Center, San Diego Union-Tribune, 15 June 2026
Alonzo Hartman arrived in the valley on Christmas Day 1872, riding into a blizzard to take over a cow camp near the confluence of the Tomichi and Gunnison rivers.
—Kevin Strong, CBS News, 12 June 2026
Right now, Chicago is facing a blizzard of incompetence.
—The Editorial Board, Chicago Tribune, 6 June 2026
Or of Russian-Kazakh mountaineer Anatoly Boukreev, who went back out into the blizzard to rescue three climbers.
—Helen Regan, CNN Money, 30 May 2026
See All Example Sentences for blizzard
Cite this Entry
“Blizzard.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/blizzard. Accessed 19 Jun. 2026.
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blizzard
noun
