murky
Americanadjective
-
murkier,
comparative
-
murkiest
superlative
adjective
-
gloomy or dark
-
cloudy or impenetrable as with smoke or fog
Synonym Usage
See dark.
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Adjectives
Etymology
Origin of murky
First recorded in 1300–50; Middle English mirky; see origin at murk, -y 1
Explanation
Something that's murky is dim, gloomy or hard to see through clearly. Think of the dark fog around a haunted house or the cloudy, muddy water in a swamp. Rarely used before the 17th century, this adjective came about by adding a "y" to the word murk. Murk itself evolved from myrkr, a Norse word for "darkness.” Things that are murky are unclear; that goes for murky, sediment-filled lakes, shady business deals, and arguments that don't seem to make any sense.
Vocabulary lists containing murky
The Diary of Anne Frank
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"The Ravine," Vocabulary from the short story
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List 10
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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:
Because of those parasites and the extremely dark, murky environment in which the sharks live, scientists have long suspected that Greenland sharks may be functionally blind.
From Science Daily ● Aug. 23, 2026
Others carry the earth to a nearby seasonal river, where mostly women crouch in the murky water, washing and sifting mud and sand hoping to detect a tiny trace of the element.
From BBC ● Aug. 22, 2026
Chinese consumer authorities and media have warned about damaged equipment, murky compensation rules, deposits that are difficult to recover and personal data left behind on rented electronics.
From MarketWatch ● Aug. 19, 2026
U.S. officials said the Oman picture was murky.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 18, 2026
His eyes, which had been murky and dilated while he was ill, were now the clearest of blues.
From "The Secret History" by Donna Tartt
Yet once companies have captured the low-hanging fruit, the road forward may get murkier.
From Barron's ● Jun. 30, 2026
If you’re looking at a flight later than this summer, the picture is murkier, but it probably makes sense to hold off for a few weeks if the ticket price is really high.
From Slate ● May 12, 2026
Far murkier is their own governing agenda, especially as they lack a clear leader.
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 6, 2026
Season 3 leaps forward five years, aging its characters out of high school and into a much murkier version of adulthood.
From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 9, 2026
As the decade wore on and they delved more deeply into the intricacies of atomic structure, their picture of the natural world grew only murkier.
From "Big Science" by Michael Hiltzik
HKU1 has the murkiest evolutionary history, but its genetic sequence clusters close to the murine hepatitis virus, suggesting it has a rodent origin.
From Science Magazine ● Jan. 11, 2024
The murkiest part of Wagner’s Sudan drive is in Darfur, a region riven by conflict and rich in uranium.
From New York Times ● Jun. 5, 2022
Gravity-powered, the sleek stainless steel system cleans even the murkiest pond water of viruses, bacteria, pathogens and other nastiness.
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 10, 2018
The fate of the Dhammazedi Bell is one of Myanmar's murkiest mysteries and for some Burmese a lifelong obsession.
From BBC ● Aug. 18, 2014
I had seen the number on the radio in Greg’s memory only a few hours earlier, burning brightly through even the murkiest clouds of his thoughts.
From "The Darkest Minds" by Alexandra Bracken
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.
