10 Words to Capture the Magic of Winter

Winter is a favorite season for many. Even if you prefer another time of year, you still probably appreciate some of winter’s delights. So let’s celebrate the season with ten wintry words!

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1 Joyful

Joyful means full of joy or delight. It describes events or sights that cause joy, such as the birth of a baby or the sight of freshly fallen snow.

2 Joyous

Joyous means happy or jubilant. It is a synonym of joyful.

3 Sugarplums

Have you heard winter songs or stories mention sugarplums? Is it a type of fruit that ripens in the winter? No, sugarplum refers to a number different delicacies made of a sweetener such as sugar, fruit preserves, or honey, ingredients for color, and various flavors. Look on this scene of Charlotte Bronte’s Villette.

She had a warm seat of her own by the fire, she had her own solace in a short black pipe, and a bottle of Mrs. Sweeny’s soothing syrup; she smoked and she sipped, and she enjoyed her paradise; and whenever a cry of the suffering souls about her pierced her ears too keenly—my jolly dame seized the poker or the hearth-brush. . .and flung a liberal shower of sugar-plums .”

4 Crisp

Crisp often describes the bracing, invigorating air of winter. It also epitomizes the sounds—the snapping of frozen twigs or the crunch of leaves beneath your feet.

5 Hoarfrost

Hoarfrost is just ordinary frost, but it’s called hoarfrost because of its appearance as it coats leaves and grass. Hoary means gray or white with age. Here’s a quote from Jane Hamilton’s A Map of the World.

There were so many miracles at work: that a blossom might become a peach, that a bee could make honey in its thorax, that rain might someday fall. I thought then about the seasons changing, and in the gray of night I could almost will myself to see the azure sky, the gold of the maple leaves, the crimson of the ripe apples, the hoarfrost on the grass.

6 Gingerbread

Gingerbread is a ginger- and molasses-flavored cake or cookie. It is a very popular winter treat.

7 Sparkling

Sparkling is the perfect word for the magical ambiance set by a fresh snowfall. Each individual snowflake sparkles like a carpet of white glitter. Icicles and frost also catch the sunlight and add to the dazzling display.

8 Berets

Berets are associated with France, but you will see people wearing them in other cold climate places. A beret is a wide, round cap with no visor. Sometimes, it has a tab in the center.

9 Unsullied

Unsullied is a word that means uncontaminated and clean. People often use it to refer to pristine snow before it has been dirtied by cars or people.

10 Wintertide

Wintertide is a literary term for wintertime. The tide of wintertide is from an Old English word meaning time or hour. One stanza of the poem “Diffugere Nives,” a poem of Horace translated by A. E. Housman, features the term.

Thaw follows frost; hard on the heel of spring

Treads summer sure to die, for hard on hers

Comes autumn with his apples scattering;

Then back to wintertide , when nothing stirs.

JohnDerbyshire.com

When you ask people why winter is their favorite season, they often mention memories of eating gingerbread, playing in the sparkling snow, or breathing the crisp, clean air. What’s your favorite wintertide memory? Why not use these ten magical winter words to write about it?