sloth

American  

[slawth, slohth] / slɔθ, sloʊθ /

noun

sloths plural

1. habitual disinclination to exertion; laziness; indolence.

   Indifference, negligence, and sloth have no place in the classroom.

   Synonyms:

   idleness

2. any of several slow-moving, arboreal, tropical American edentates of the family Bradypodidae, having a long, coarse, grayish-brown coat often of a greenish cast caused by algae, and long, hooklike claws used in gripping tree branches while hanging or moving along in a habitual upside-down position.

3. a pack or group of bears.

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sloth British  

/ sləʊθ /

noun

1. any of several shaggy-coated arboreal edentate mammals of the family Bradypodidae, esp Bradypus tridactylus ( three-toed sloth or ai ) or Choloepus didactylus ( two-toed sloth or unau ), of Central and South America. They are slow-moving, hanging upside down by their long arms and feeding on vegetation

2. reluctance to work or exert oneself

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Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• sloths
  plural

Etymology

Origin of sloth

First recorded in 1125–75; Middle English slowth; replacing Old English slǣwth, derivative of slǣw, variant of slāw “slow”; see slow, -th ¹

Explanation

If you lounge around in your bathrobe watching TV and ordering out for pizza, you'll get called a sloth. A sloth is actually a slow-moving, tree-dwelling mammal, but it has become a synonym for "lazybones." Slug also doubles as the name of an animal and a term for someone who is lazy, slow or lethargic. But with slug, the animal name probably morphed into the human application, whereas sloth has meant "lazy person" or "laziness" for a long time. In the Catholic Church sloth was categorized as one of the seven deadly sins.

Example Sentences

We have trained sloth and docility and are reaping what we have sown.

From The Wall Street Journal • Jun. 11, 2026

There was also Drepanosaurus, a tree-dwelling reptile equipped with a large claw resembling that of a tree sloth, along with a smaller claw on its prehensile tail.

From Science Daily • May 29, 2026

Keepers had raised concerns that Arlo seemed particularly lethargic, even by sloth standards.

From BBC • Apr. 21, 2026

In one case, a nest was discovered inside the pulp cavity of a sloth tooth.

From Science Daily • Apr. 3, 2026

They overestimated its size by a factor of six and gave it frightening claws, which in fact came from a Megalonyx, or giant ground sloth, found nearby.

From "A Short History of Nearly Everything" by Bill Bryson