Sleep
verbTo rest in the natural recurring state in which the eyes close and consciousness is largely suspended.
How to spell sleep
5 letters · 1 syllable
How to pronounce sleep
What does sleep mean?
- verbTo rest in the natural recurring state in which the eyes close and consciousness is largely suspended.
- nounThe condition of rest in which the body and mind are inactive and consciousness is suspended.
Sleep in a sentence
-
verb
After the long flight she could barely sleep in the noisy hotel.
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noun
A good night of sleep left him feeling sharp at the meeting.
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verb
The baby will finally sleep once the room is dark and quiet.
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noun
Chronic lack of sleep can affect both mood and concentration.
Where does sleep come from?
Language of origin: Germanic
Sleep descends from the Old English noun and verb 'slǣp' (also spelled 'slēp'), which carried the same meaning of the natural state of rest that it does today. It traces back to a Proto-Germanic root reconstructed as 'slēpaną', the source of many close relatives across the Germanic family, including Dutch 'slapen' and German 'schlafen'. The deeper Indo-European root is thought to have meant 'to be slack' or 'to grow limp', which fits the bodily looseness of a sleeping person rather neatly. The spelling has changed little, settling on the 'ee' digraph in Middle English to mark the long vowel sound. Because it is one of the oldest everyday words in the language, it has stayed remarkably stable and presents almost no spelling difficulty.
How the word is built
- sleep (single native root; no affixes)
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