snag

C2+ Topic:General Vocabulary

US /snæɡ/ UK /snæɡ/ See IPA manual

Minimal pairs

Sounds like snog /æ/ vs /ɑ/

Meanings

1

noun
an unexpected obstacle, or a sharp projection that catches or tears

The plan hit a snag when funding fell through.

Thesaurus

Synonyms

1 noun · an unexpected obstacle, or... obstacle hitch catch drawback impediment hindrance complication stub

Opposites

advantage benefit help

Word family

Derived forms snaggysnagged

Etymology

From a Scandinavian source, akin to Old Norse snagi ('clothes peg') and Norwegian dialect snag ('a projecting point, snag'); the sense 'unexpected obstacle' arose in 19th-century America from submerged tree stumps that snagged riverboats.

snagi Old Norse

View etymology graph ->

Topics

General Vocabulary

External links

# snag

**Type:** Word
**Level:** C2+
**Part of speech:** noun
**IPA (US):** /snæɡ/
**IPA (UK):** /snæɡ/

## Meanings
1. an unexpected obstacle, or a sharp projection that catches or tears

## Examples
- The plan hit a snag when funding fell through.

## Synonyms
- obstacle
- hitch
- catch
- drawback
- impediment
- hindrance
- complication
- stub

## Antonyms
- advantage
- benefit
- help

## Derived Forms
- snaggy
- snagged

## Roots and Affixes
- Root: snagi

## Etymology
From a Scandinavian source, akin to Old Norse snagi ('clothes peg') and Norwegian dialect snag ('a projecting point, snag'); the sense 'unexpected obstacle' arose in 19th-century America from submerged tree stumps that snagged riverboats.

## AI Etymology
Snag comes from a Scandinavian source, akin to Old Norse snagi ('clothes peg') and Norwegian dialect snag ('a projecting point, snag'); the sense 'unexpected obstacle' arose in 19th-century America from submerged tree stumps that snagged riverboats. The historical chain includes Old Norse snagi. The quoted older senses, "clothes peg", "a projecting point, snag", and "unexpected obstacle", supply the semantic anchors for snag. The formation is best read as borrowed: the word snag carries its older form-history into a compact English lexical shape. In present English it is used as a noun, "an unexpected obstacle, or a sharp projection that catches or tears". English derivatives include snaggy and snagged. The result is a noun and verb whose etymology preserves both the older form and the later English specialization.

## Topics
- General Vocabulary

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