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Credit for snark is often given to Lewis Carroll, on the basis of his having written a poem with this word in the title, back in the 1870s. The modern snark, however, is a back-formation (“a word formed by subtraction of a real or supposed affix from an already existing longer word”), a class of words that includes burgle and back-stab. It comes from taking the longer word snarky and subtracting the -y. Snarky emerged in English around the turn of the 20th century, initially with the meaning of “snappish, crotchety,” and then later took on the sense of “sarcastic, impertinent, or irreverent in tone or manner.” The noun snark is a much more recent addition to the language, arising in the 1990s. It was preceded by the verb snark, “to make an irreverent or sarcastic comment, to say something snarky,” which dates to the late 1980s.
Examples of snark in a Sentence
Katherine Rosman, New York Times, 1 May 2025
In rebuttal to the outrage economy, where snark, fear and FOMO dominate the social media landscape, Gen Z is taking action and leading the way towards a more sane approach to the world of social media.
—Chris Westfall, Forbes.com, 30 May 2025
Gayle Sequeira, Vulture, 16 May 2025
For its part, the social media website, founded in 2005 and now based in San Francisco, divides up subjects, then scoops up links, videos, text posts and images, which are discussed by users, who are prone to snark, not my favorite part of the experience.
—Michael Barnes, Austin American-Statesman, 3 Jan. 2024
See All Example Sentences for snark
Cite this Entry
“Snark.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/snark. Accessed 3 Jul. 2025.
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