A snarl is a tangled, twisted mess that's difficult to untangle. When you wake up with your hair in knots after a restless night, those knots are snarls. Yarn becomes snarled when it winds around itself in a jumbled ball instead of staying neatly arranged. Fishing line snarls when it twists into a hopeless tangle.

The word captures both the tangled thing itself and the frustration of dealing with it. You might spend ten minutes trying to work out a snarl in your shoelaces or a necklace chain. Traffic can snarl too: when too many cars crowd an intersection and nobody can move, we say traffic is snarled or there's a traffic snarl.

The word also describes an angry, threatening sound made by an animal showing its teeth. A dog snarls when it's warning you to stay back, pulling its lips up to expose its teeth while making a low, growling sound. Wolves snarl at intruders in their territory. People can snarl too, though usually we mean they're speaking in an angry, harsh tone rather than literally baring their teeth. Someone might snarl an insult or respond to a question with a snarl in their voice, making it clear they're in no mood for conversation.