Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- adj. Slang Rudely sarcastic or disrespectful; snide.
- adj. Slang Irritable or short-tempered; irascible.
Wiktionary
- adj. informal Snide and sarcastic; usually out of irritation, often humorously.
Etymologies
- snark + -y; 1906, as “irritable”, from 1866 snark ("to snort"), by (onomatopoeia). Compare Low German snarken, North Frisian snarke, Swedish snarka. (Wiktionary)
- From dialectal snark, to nag, from snark, snork, to snore, snort, from Dutch and Low German snorken, of imitative origin. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“Whether or not you find the repeated use of what we called "scare quotes" in graduate school a sign of pique or merely snarky is up to readers.”
McCain Campaign Gets All Ironic in Obama’s Grill - Swampland - TIME.com
“What is rather ironic, Doug, is that you engage in snarky commentary on my website - yet you chide others for doing exactly the same thing elsewhere.”
“Since its launch in 1995, Pitchfork has become trusted as the final (or at least first) word on the latest sounds, although the site has faced criticism for reviews some call snarky or elitist.”
“I reveled in snarky book reviews and grinned wide, my lips curving into a knowing sneer.”
“I do not think I have seen the word snarky before - but I see it is in M-W. com.”
“NYTimes. com: Life after 'snarky' - the future for the gossip site writers Tip of the day from Journalism. co.uk - checking the reliability of a site DNA09: Event host Richard Gizbert on making a living from media-gazing”
“NYTimes. com: Life after 'snarky' - the future for the gossip site writers Tip of the day from Journalism. co.uk - checking the reliability of a site DNA09: Event host Richard Gizbert on making a living from media-gazing Who is an investigative programme for?”
“Online Journalism / Blog article: NYTimes. com: Life after 'snarky' - the future for the gossip site writers NYTimes. com: Life after 'snarky' - the future for the gossip site writers Online Journalism”
“No one said he was not allowed to have an opinion; he just called his blogging (aka opinion in the form of a blog) snarky, which is the other guys 'own opinion.”
John Cho Says A Very Harold & Kumar Christmas Could Shoot in June | /Film
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘snarky’.
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Of Imitative Origin
Words formed in imitation of the sound of the things they signify.
bawl, biff, blizzard, blob, blooper, bob, boff, bomb, bonkers, boo, borborygmus, brouhaha and 148 more...
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henryar's list
marmoleum, menagerie, cyan, ochre, pilfer, discombobulate, loquacious, iridescent, amethyst, derelict, botulism, equilibrium and 240 more...
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Russian Doll Words
A Russian Doll word is a word that, when you remove the first and last letters, is either the empty string, or a Russian Doll word. These are all of the 6 or more letter Russian Doll words found in...
waspiness, upraisers, strainers, sporangia, raspiness, prelatess, methanals, gaspiness, washings, uprisers, upraises, upraiser and 2373 more...
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Words For Novel (Part 2)
fable, sprite, syphilitic, anvil, wonderstruck, vertigo, bridled, tufted, fettered, savvy, tweed fedora, tryst and 255 more...
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October 2011
serendipity, grateful, irritable, punchy, twitchy, reverence, solitude, levity, nubble, sojourn, Eden, quesadilla and 19 more...
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wordlist
collabulary, concretize, cuspy, fecund, glory hole, kung fu, miasma, ninjitsu, panacea, rubric, snarky, synesthesia and 13 more...
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mots justes
No true synonyms, no other word will do.
dysphemism, nyehre, conflate, onomatopœic, galumph, zeitgeist, mercenary, theomeny, git, snarky, sass, smarmy and 46 more...
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Randomocity
Jeepers, Gadzooks, Golly Gee Whitickers,
squalor,, oodles,, pedantic, snarky, tchotchke, prima donna, hovel, canoodle, juxtapositions, nouveau riche, chagrin, factotum and 12 more...
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Fun Words
Words that are fun to say....
gobbledygook, jings, crivens, hullabaloo, wheech, brouhaha, pizzazz, harum-scarum, namby-pamby, pussyfoot, frippery, pitter-patter and 333 more...
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MiaLuthien's list ♥
gambit, prehensile, coquetry, impunity, genuflect, ensconce, clavicle, delude, beget, castigate, life caching, convoluted and 478 more...
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Twitter favorites
The new favourite words of people on Twitter.
A script searches Twitter for "X is my new favorite word" and adds it to this list.
See also:
unfathomably, glice, cuh, fab, ciggaty, doll, thuggin, oxymoronic, pineapple, succubutt, griming, cheeky and 2369 more... -
cxfx's list
callipygous, scaphism, ubermorgen, handschuhschneeba..., farctate, autohagiography, autolatry, spindrift, feculent, verisimilitude, brobdingnagian, ineluctable and 205 more...
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words I love to use
kerfuffle, smarmy, sketchy, grim, wheedle, piffle, prattle, loggerheads, snarky, piddling, nix, caterwaul and 90 more...
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How very mikeropological..
Basically it's just mikeropology's words, but with his username turned into an adjectivally splendid list name.
mikeropology, squoze, anthropromorphism, mullu, spondylus, goobers, hipster, burnt umber, ochre, canvas, lapizure, burnt sienna and 172 more...
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sillygoose's Words
nefarious, waffle, dilettante, love, obstreperous, suggestible, fodder, plucky, trajectory, eclectic, juggernaut, demure and 115 more...
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ADW1
obdurate, obstinate, behest, injunction, enjoin, circumspect, ensconce, discursive, lugubrious, doleful, somber, ken and 2476 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for snarky.

jberkel (informal) Snide and sarcastic; usually out of irritation. Jul 27, 2009