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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
Roni Jacobson, New York Daily News, 21 Mar. 2026
The cold weather that accompanied the blizzard is moving out of Iowa and bringing more summer-like weather.
—Lucia Cheng, Des Moines Register, 19 Mar. 2026
Wild extremes of temperature, a heat dome, a potent bomb cyclone blizzard, epic rainfalls and violent tornadoes have wreaked weather havoc across the nation.
—Doyle Rice, USA Today, 17 Mar. 2026
Lewis, of Madison, shovels snow during a blizzard, March 16, 2026 in Madison, Wisconsin.
—Kathryn Prociv, NBC news, 17 Mar. 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 22 Mar. 2026.
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blizzard
noun
