foggy
Americanadjective
-
thick with or having much fog; misty.
a foggy valley;
a foggy spring day.
-
covered or enveloped as if with fog.
a foggy mirror.
-
(of thinking, ideas, etc.) dim or unclear as if obscured by fog; vague.
I haven't the foggiest notion of where she went.
- Synonyms:
- muddleheaded, muddled, fuzzy, befuddled
-
Difficulties with memory, concentration, attention, and fatigue left me feeling foggy and muddled much of the time.
-
Photography. affected by fog.
adjective
-
thick with fog
-
obscure or confused
-
another word for fogged
-
no idea whatsoever
I haven't the foggiest
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Adjectives
Etymology
Origin of foggy
First recorded in 1520–30; fog 2 + -y 1; original sense was “marshy, thick, murky”
Explanation
Something that's foggy is cloudy or murky, filled with fog. A foggy view is blurred and indistinct, just like a foggy mind. Driving on a foggy road can be tricky, since it's more or less like driving inside a cloud. When the inside of your head feels this way — blurry, clouded, and vague — you can also used foggy in a figurative way: "Her memory grew foggy as the years went by." Experts aren't sure whether foggy or fog came first, but in either case they suspect a Scandinavian root.
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:
BBC News understands that the small, motor-less yacht had drifted towards the warship in foggy conditions after setting off from the UK.
From BBC ● Jun. 16, 2026
Barkin stated holding interest rates steady in March was prudent due to elevated uncertainty and a foggy outlook.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 27, 2026
A stroke had left him perpetually foggy, unable to recall many details about his life beyond the fact that he had been born in Cuba and had spent nearly 50 years in the United States.
From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 21, 2026
On a foggy winter morning captain Khetsopon Nopsiri led a six-strong Thai army patrol along dirt tracks through the forest, assault rifles at the ready.
From Barron's ● Mar. 10, 2026
Over time, his demands for her had become weaker, until she had become only a foggy memory.
From "Forged by Fire" by Sharon M. Draper
It’s likely that her grief is making the future even foggier.
From MarketWatch ● Apr. 25, 2026
“This will make the picture of Russia foggier still,” said Maksim Kurnikov, a broadcast journalist in exile in Berlin.
From New York Times ● Apr. 4, 2023
"It was even foggier the next day. We came up short at the end, but this week we’ve really been trying to be detail oriented."
From Fox News ● Oct. 16, 2021
It’s a clever scene in which we’re reenacting a memory, and the deeper we probe, the foggier and more unnatural the worlds gets.
From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 20, 2020
Next morning dawned colder and foggier than ever, and even Wolf seemed dejected as he led them upstream.
From "Wolf Brother" by Michelle Paver
The seven-week study window covered the time of year when Heber Valley is the foggiest.
From Science Daily ● Dec. 29, 2023
The city witnessed one of the foggiest days of the season so far, with visibility dropping to below 50 metres on Wednesday.
From BBC ● Dec. 27, 2023
Shifting away from the foggiest areas could save a little time and reduce the risk of accidents.
From Scientific American ● May 1, 2023
Her final volume proves that even the finest chroniclers can still be leveled by their own lives, and that the memories that make us human are the foggiest and most ephemeral.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jan. 6, 2023
“It’s awful. All those math classes I signed up for...well, I don’t have the foggiest idea what’s going on. The professor’s talking in the lecture hall, and it’s like he’s speaking another language.”
From "The Lions of Little Rock" by Kristin Levine
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.
