Standard Lemma guide

somniferous

adj · 2 senses · updated from the 2026-07-25 local source snapshot

Definitions and examples are grouped by meaning. Pronunciation, history, word forms, translations, descendants, synonyms, antonyms, derived terms, and related words appear whenever the source provides them.

Sound

Pronunciation

Each Play button uses your device's default local English voice, or a natural local fallback. The selected voice name appears after playback. This is synthesized speech, not a source recording.

  • Received-Pronunciation: /sɒmˈnɪfəɹəs/
  • Southern-England: Recorded audio is listed in the source snapshot.
  • General-American: /sɑmˈnɪfəɹəs/
  • rhymes with -ɪfəɹəs

1

adj

Meaning 1

causing or inducing sleep, normally with harmful overtones.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Topics: medicine, pharmacology, sciences

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

2

adjective satellite

Meaning 2

sleep inducing

Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: soporific, soporiferous, somnific, hypnogogic, hypnagogic

Antonyms: none provided

History

Etymology

From Latin somnifer + -ous, from somnus (“sleep”) + ferre (“to bring”).