muggy
Americanadjective
adjective
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of muggy
1725–35; mug to drizzle (noun and v.) (< Scandinavian; compare Old Norse mugga mist, drizzle) + -y 1
Explanation
Think of hot, humid, steamy weather as being so unpleasant that you feel "mugged" by it when you step outside. That's one way to remember the meaning of muggy. "It's not the heat! It's the humidity!" That's what your grandma says when she wants to complain about muggy weather. Muggy means a combination of humidity and heat that makes you sweaty and uncomfortable and long for air-conditioning. You might be cursing the cold and the snow today, but mark my words, come August and the muggy dog days of summer, you'll be nostalgic for the cold.
Vocabulary lists containing muggy
The Sweltering Words of Summer
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English Words Derived from Old Norse
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Kindred
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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.
Rain delayed play by half an hour, the atmosphere was muggy and the pitch coloured a light green.
From BBC • Jun. 17, 2026
Still, the muggy morning session has the Bula FC squad sweating heavily at the club's base in Ba, a town on Fiji's main island in a northern coastal area known for its sugarcane farms.
From Barron's • Feb. 5, 2026
It can feel like I’m in a muggy rainforest, even in an air-conditioned room.
From The Wall Street Journal • Sep. 27, 2025
An early lead shrunk across four innings on a muggy afternoon.
From Los Angeles Times • Jun. 14, 2025
Soon the air was so hot and muggy in Elinor's car that Meggie’s T-shirt was sticking to her skin with sweat.
From "Inkheart" by Cornelia Funke
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.
