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.
See Examples For:
Rain delayed play by half an hour, the atmosphere was muggy and the pitch coloured a light green.
From BBC ● Jun. 17, 2026
Tuesday morning, in the muggy New Jersey heat, 13 players graduated.
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 28, 2026
The conditions may also make coastal California feel more humid and muggy because of the loss of cooling fog and because warmer air holds more moisture, according to Swain.
From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 16, 2026
In Cuba, where many fear the prospect of no electricity come summer, with its muggy heat and swarms of disease-carrying mosquitoes, people are getting creative.
From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 22, 2026
It was a hot, muggy day, and I realized suddenly that the mare had been sweating excessively and needed water.
From This Side of Wild by Gary Paulsen
A higher dew point means the air is moister and thus will feel muggier.
From Slate ● Jun. 25, 2025
By late Wednesday afternoon, that muggier, moist air will move into the region, creating the environment for tornadoes to form.
From New York Times ● Feb. 15, 2023
She said the "roasting" and "muggier" weather has made home visits a bit harder.
From BBC ● Jul. 19, 2022
The offseason’s great intrigue – where will LeBron go next? – began well before these finals ended, and will only get muggier and more tiring as the summer drags on.
From The Guardian ● Jun. 9, 2018
The air felt muggier than their normal southern Aprils.
From "Ivy Aberdeen’s Letter to the World" by Ashley Herring Blake
Expats and tourists from some of the hottest, muggiest U.S. states are bewildered: How has a lifetime of sweltering heat not prepared them for this?
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 26, 2026
Pentagram, the Obsessed, Iron Man and other doom bands each specialized in sluggish, smothering riffs that, in their respective heydays, felt as endless and extreme as Washington at its muggiest.
From Washington Post ● Jun. 16, 2022
Yes, they’re dorky-looking, but it gives you the ability to keep your fan open and running even when it’s raining, which is often when it’s muggiest.
From The Verge ● Sep. 15, 2017
For the holiday week, the Metrograph will screen films set in some of New York’s muggiest weather.
From New York Times ● Jun. 30, 2016
She likes the spicy soup, but she can’t understand why I only seem to make it on the hottest, muggiest nights.
From "Native Speaker" by Chang-rae Lee
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.
