filthy
Americanadjective
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foul with, characterized by, or having the nature of filth; disgustingly or completely dirty.
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filthy language.
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contemptibly offensive, vile, or objectionable.
to treat one's friends in a filthy manner.
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(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
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.
Appeared in the October 10, 2025, print edition as 'Closed Parking and Filthy Toilets Greet Visitors to National Parks'.
From The Wall Street Journal • Oct. 9, 2025
Filthy walls were scrawled with names, pleas and snatches of poetry.
From New York Times • Jun. 5, 2024
Showrunners Scott Neustadter and Will Graham invested vast sums in certain kinds of historical “verisimilitude,” carefully re-creating the legendary Sunset Strip bar Filthy McNasty’s in the actual present-day Viper Room, for instance.
From Washington Post • Mar. 3, 2023
He co-wrote the screenplay for the 2001 feature film This Filthy Earth alongside director Andrew Kötting, which was adapted from the 1887 novel La Terre by Émile Zola.
From BBC • Aug. 18, 2021
“Not from our world,” she said, “nor from this. Filthy abominations. There are thousands of them, breeding like flies…. Who is this? Is this the child Lyra? And who is the boy?”
From "The Subtle Knife" by Philip Pullman
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.
