filthy
Americanadjective
-
foul with, characterized by, or having the nature of filth; disgustingly or completely dirty.
-
filthy language.
-
contemptibly offensive, vile, or objectionable.
to treat one's friends in a filthy manner.
-
(of money) abundantly supplied (often followed bywith ).
They're filthy with money.
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Slang. (especially in sports) formidable: knocked down by a filthy right hook.
a young rookie with a filthy curveball;
knocked down by a filthy right hook.
verb (used with object)
idioms
adjective
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characterized by or full of filth; very dirty or obscene
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offensive or vicious
that was a filthy trick to play
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informal extremely unpleasant
filthy weather
adverb
Synonym Usage
See dirty.
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Adjectives
Etymology
Origin of filthy
First recorded in 1350–1400; Middle English; see origin at filth, -y 1
Explanation
Filthy is a dirty word. Sure, you can say it aloud in public, but it means "dirty" — like your dirty laundry pile by the end of the week. The joy of filthy really lies in the limitless range of its usage. Just about anything can be filthy, not just your dirty socks. You can have filthy living conditions, or wear filthy clothes, but it's also used to refer to something morally or ethically odious, too: "filthy liar," "filthy language," and so on. It can also indicate envy or outrage on the part of the user, as in our favorite use of the word, "filthy rich." Now that's a use of filthy we'd be happy to put up with.
Vocabulary lists containing filthy
Unit 1: Telling Details
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Tax Day Words
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Vocabulary from history writings about the Triangle Factory Fire
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
No matter how filthy a tackle might be, Deschamps instructed his players to bounce back up and carry on in silence.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 9, 2026
All of Slattery’s lines are filthy or pathetic.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 8, 2026
Only a few days after the pool was refilled, though, it reverted what it always is: a filthy slime pit that nevertheless does an adequate job of its primary objective: reflecting.
From Slate ● Jun. 19, 2026
"It was filthy, dirty and it leaked like a sieve for many years," he said in a White House video.
From Barron's ● May 15, 2026
She spoke always as though she were describing things that she saw—as if that wide, winding staircase and those bright gardens were the reality, this cramped and filthy barracks the dream.
From "The Hiding Place" by Corrie ten Boom
"The state of 'neither war nor peace' is far filthier than war itself," 39-year-old Tehran resident Shahrzad told AFP.
From Barron's ● May 23, 2026
In fact, such a thing had been in the works since the 1950s, but instead of hurrying to get them assembly-line ready as L.A. was sickening with smog, Detroit just made bigger, filthier cars.
From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 26, 2026
That sponge, I reasoned, had to be way filthier than whatever Key Food filth had been lingering on the Coke I was about to bring to my lips.
From Salon ● Feb. 14, 2023
Russell groaned and wiped off the black ash with an even filthier cloth.
From New York Times ● Jan. 2, 2018
I stayed out of my stepfamily’s way as much as possible, and the longer I worked as a scullery maid, and the filthier I got, the less Hattie and Mum Olga tormented me.
From "Ella Enchanted" by Gail Carson Levine
In a school playground squeezed between two main roads, children play tag in some of Sheffield's filthiest air.
From BBC ● Dec. 4, 2023
We celebrated everything we could, bouncing from fancy restaurant to the filthiest dive bars we could find every week.
From Salon ● Jul. 9, 2023
He was just one of the filthiest comics ever, but it was done in such a genius way.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jan. 15, 2022
It used to be notorious as one of the filthiest waterways in America, a poster child for urban decline and environmental ruin.
From New York Times ● Aug. 5, 2020
Well," said the visitor, "the city of Constantinople has the reputation of being the filthiest city in Europe, but it has a brigade of canine street cleaners to assist the rainfalls in cleaning the thoroughfares.
From A Trip to the Orient The Story of a Mediterranean Cruise by Jacob, Robert Urie
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
