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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
Merrell Readman, Travel + Leisure, 19 May 2026
Within minutes, an unforeseen blizzard unleashed what would become the worst storm ever recorded in the Pyrenees.
—Emiliano De Pablos, Variety, 15 May 2026
Set against the 1977 Buffalo blizzard that ravaged Western New York, Record Lows centers on the Pond family, who live in the town of Oneira.
—Carly Tagen-Dye, PEOPLE, 15 May 2026
Nix and Drake Maye finally square off in a matchup that could have massive conference-seeding implications, and could feature a blizzard in Foxborough instead of a blizzard in Denver this time around.
—Parker Gabriel, Denver Post, 13 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 21 May. 2026.
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blizzard
noun
