Definition of "somnolence" []

• A state of drowsiness; sleepiness. (noun)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "Though the movie is endeavoring to rouse the youth of a nation out of some kind of somnolence, it still adheres to a retrograde movie morality out of 30s-era Hollywood."
• "Mr. Ventnor sat in an armchair on the opposite side of the fire; and, finding a kind of somnolence creeping over him, pinched himself."
• "Thus, they could not understand his excessive somnolence in the forenoon, nor his excessive activity at night."